This is what the Medoc is all about. The freshness and delicacy of this wine in combination with its serious concentration and firm core are totally stunning. Time has already worked its magic and this is already delicious, but has decades in front of it. Drink or hold.

This is stunning for its ability to take massively endowed fig, currant paste and crushed plum fruit flavors and harness them with ultrasuave freshly roasted espresso, black tea and ganache notes. A seductive style, long and velvety, with the dense core of black fruit and smoldering iron just waiting and waiting. Best from 2020 through 2040.

It displays, as Lafite always does, more of a laid back elegance than Latour, and the difference between the two once again highlights the huge differences in terroir between north and south Pauillac, with the deep gravels here giving finesse, composure, almost nonchalance. It tames with a whisper, bringing you to submission by gently, purposefully and ever so slowly layering one thing on top of another. It has gorgeously pure and precise fruit on the nose, while the palate displays a multitude of flavours, from charcoal to cassis to crushed stone, and yet no one thing dominates. There are a ton of tannins, but they are individually fine, and it's only in retrospect that you realise how many of them there are. The tone of Lafite is speaking over the vintage, and it's going to run and run.

The deep garnet colored 2009 Lafite Rothschild bursts from the glass with red and black currant preserves, warm plums, mulberries and kirsch scents plus suggestions of sweaty leather, cigar box and menthol. Medium-bodied, elegant and firmly structured, it has wonderful freshness and a long earthy/meaty finish.