Lafite Rothschild 1994

As I wrote last year, Lafite’s 1994 is the first 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine made at this estate. The only other wine that had such a high Cabernet content was the 1961. The 1994 Lafite Rothschild is not an easy wine to figure out. I felt more positively about it this year than last, but it is an atypically powerful, ferociously tannic, frightfully backward Lafite that appears to require 15-20 years of cellaring before its huge tannin level will begin to melt away. The extraordinarily dense color saturation and intense ripeness undoubtedly suggest that something profound may well emerge from this wine in two decades. On the other hand, 20 years of aging could result in a marvelously well-constructed wine that remains hard, tough, and charmless. It’s a gamble, but for readers who love Lafite and have the necessary income, it may be worth it. Although it appears even more backward than the 1986 Lafite, it possesses enough positive components to elicit considerable interest. For your children’s children’s children? All of the wines in this segment were tasted between March 19 and March 28 in Bordeaux. Most of the important wines from both the 1994 and 1995 vintages were tasted three separate times during my ten-day stay in Bordeaux.