98
Jeb Dunnuck Tasting Note
Checking in as 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot that's resting in 90% new French oak, the 2025 Château Lafite Rothschild sports a classic, deep ruby hue as well as a complex and classic nose of cassis, spicy wood, tobacco, violets, and graphite. It's quintessential Lafite on the palate as well, with its class, medium to full body, ripe, building, yet polished tannins, and nicely integrated acidity. It checks in at 12.51% alcohol with a pH of 3.65. I love its overall balance, purity, and complexity, and I suspect it's going to continue gaining weight over the course of its élevage.
99
Vinous Tasting Note
The 2025 Lafite-Rothschild is powerful and explosive in the glass. Dark cherry/plum fruit, graphite, new leather, graphite, licorice and lavender race across the palate. A Pauillac of mid-weight structure, the 2025 impresses with its tension and deep, layered personality. Even in the early going, the Grand Vin is so vivid, so expressive. I can't wait to taste it in finished form. Drink 2035-2075
100
James Suckling Tasting Note
Intense aromas of sweet tobacco, dark cedar, cigar humidor, mushroom, roses, and wet earth follow through to a medium to full body with firm, velvety tannins and a driven, intense finish. Very structured with bones. Reminds me of Lafite from the 1980s. Unique for the vintage. 12.5% alcohol. A blend of 94% cabernet sauvignon, 5% merlot and 1% petit verdot.
97
Wine Advocate Tasting Note
A blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, the 2025 Lafite Rothschild unwinds in the glass with a deep and brooding bouquet of dark berries, violets, rose petals and pencil lead. Medium- to full-bodied, supple and layered, with suave tannins, good concentration and bright acidity, it checks in at 12.5% alcohol and an unusually low (by the standards of recent warm vintages at Lafite) pH of 3.65. Harvest began here on September 2, with the estate's old-vine Merlot beginning on September 3 and the first Cabernet Sauvignon coming in from September 11 (earlier than in 2022), and the harvest wrapped up on September 20.