CHÂTEAU SMITH HAUT LAFITTE
2015 Cru Classé Pessac-Léognan
May, June and July were very dry. 2 days of rain in August just allowed the vines to keep going. One half day of rain during the whole of the harvest period, and that was it. 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, the rest split equally between Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The Cabernet Franc here was harvested last, so after the little rain, and so not quite as special is it might have been. Very dark colour, dark rich fruit, bright and supple. This has some real life to it - there's energy here. Finish is tannic but still quite 'real' and still bright and vibrant. Excellent. They are intruducing biodynamics here and have converted a proportion already. Rating: 93-94 L&S (Apr 2016)
* This is a pre-shipment/primeur offer. All orders are accepted under the TERMS of this offer which differ from the terms of the rest of the site.
The 2015 Smith Haut-Lafitte has a strong peppermint-tinged bouquet that renders it like a McClaren Vale Cabernet! The palate is medium-bodied with plush tannins, fine grip and touches of cough candy toward the finish. It's a bit…bullish? Tasted blind at the 2015 Bordeaux Ten-Year-On tasting. Drinking range: 2025 - 2033 Rating: 87 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jun 2025)
Packed with black cherry and damson fruit, with a smoky curl of grilled sandalwood and cloves, this continues to deliver, as it has since En Primeur, and although there are tons of tannins that will take it through decades, it has not closed down too tightly, and can be enjoyed now with a long carafe. I often say that Smith Haut Lafitte is the wine to choose if you want to be sure of making people happy, while still delivering a sense of occasion and complexity, and it comes across so well in this vintage, with its cocoa bean and cappucino creaminess, and grippy acidity with salted cracker finish. 60% new oak, Fabien Teitgen technical director. Organic and biodynamic farming. 2015 is also an important year hear, marking 650 years since the founding of Smith Haut Lafitte and 25 years of the Cathiard family’s ownership. Drinking range: 2023 - 2045 Rating: 97 Jane Anson, Decanter (Jun 2023)
The 2015 Smith Haut-Lafitte has a detailed and focused bouquet with blackberry, cedar and freshly rolled tobacco aromas, unfurling with each swirl of the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannin, taut and crisp with cedar and graphite. Unashamedly classic in style, it has impressive depth and good grip on the finish. This is destined to give a lot of pleasure. Tasted blind at the Southwold 2015 Bordeaux tasting. Rating: 95 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jul 2019)
The 2015 Les Hauts de Smith is gorgeous. Dark, pliant and inviting, it exudes the character that makes the wines from this site so appealing. Plush fruit and soft contours add to the 2015's considerable appeal. Dark red cherry, plum and a range of more lifted floral/spice notes add nuance. Drinking range: 2018 - 2030 Rating: 91 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Feb 2018)
Right up there with the best Left Bank reds in 2015, this is the latest in a line of impressive releases from Smith-Haut-Lafitte. Grassy, aromatic and herbal, with blueberry and blackcurrant sweetness, tangy acidity and a core of serious, well integrated tannin embellished by stylish, perfumed oak. Drinking range: 2025 - 2035 Rating: 96 Tim Atkin MW, www.timatkin.com (May 2016)
New black label to celebrate the Cathiards' anniversary and that of the property. Very dark. Comfortable base and lots of perfume. Round and sweet. Tense and tight. An excitingly taut package that promises well. Drinking range: 2024 - 2040 Rating: 18 Jancis Robinson OBE MW - www.JancisRobinson.com (Apr 2016)
63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Organic. A wonderful wine of great impact and rich, grippy tannins but the density imperceptibly lightens towards the finish so you are left with the impression of freshness even though the liquorice, black cherry and cassis flavour persists. Smith Haut Lafitte has clearly stopped chasing the ripest fruit, instead going for the most aromatic, at perfect phenolic maturity. 3.7pH, 65% new oak. Drinking range: 2025 - 2040 Rating: 96 Jane Anson, Decanter (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Smith-Haut-Lafitte is adorned with a special label to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the château and the 25th vintage made under the ownership of Daniel and Florence Cathiard. It is a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, picked between 23 September until 12 October with the Cabernet Franc. Matured in 65% new oak (although technical director Fabien Teitgen mentioned that he could have added more if he felt it would benefit), it has a very intense, blueberry and crème de cassis scented bouquet, a touch more opulent than its peers with hints of freshly shucked oyster shell developing with aeration. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin couched in gorgeous, satin-textured black cherry and cassis fruit, tinged with cedar and pencil shavings. It lingers very long and sensually in the mouth, completing a sophisticated and powerful Smith Haut-Lafitte that should age in splendid fashion. Drinking range: 2025 - 2050 Rating: 95-97 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
The 2015 Smith Haut Lafitte is superb. Dark, powerful and towering, the 2015 exudes richness and a level of intensity in all directions that is remarkable. This is an especially dark, brooding Grand Vin built on serious depth, intensity and structure, and yet there is more than enough richness in the fruit to balance things out. The extreme heat of the year appears to have baked out some of the aromatic nuance. It will be interesting to see if that dimension opens up. For now, the 2015 is massively shut down. Readers will have to be especially patient, as the 2015 won't be ready to drink for some time. Both en primeur samples I tasted were less expressive than the separate components were when I tasted them from barrel in late January 2016, so I won't be surprised at all if the bottled wine comes in at the top of this range. Rating: 93-96 Antonio Galloni, www.vinous.com (Apr 2016)
Ripe and succulent in feel, with warm plum and blackberry confiture notes leading the way. Picks up singed alder and tar details through the finish, gaining extra depth. Very pure, but with ample grip in reserve. A serious wine. Rating: 94—97 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Apr 2016)
This is a very polished and precise young wine with beautiful depth and intensity. Full and sexy. It shows blueberry and black currant character with walnut and chocolate undertones. The tannins have a lovely texture. Joy to taste. Rating: 97-98 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Mar 2016)
Château Smith Haut Lafitte
Owned by the Cathiard family since 1990, Smith Haut Lafitte has a history that extends back to 1365. Originally owned by the Bosq Family, it was bought by Scotsman George Smith in the eighteenth century, and he gave it his name. He also built the manor house, and shipped the wine back to England.
In 1842, it passed, from his mother, to a M. Duffour-Dubergier, who was mayor of Bordeaux. His work raised the quality level and it was classified Grand Cru in the 1855 classification. The 20th century was mostly about Louis Eschenauer and his company, which distibuted the wines and eventually bought the property in 1958, investing over the time and building the barrel cellar.
The Cathiards fell in love with Smith in 1990, and have lavished care and considerable investment on it since then. Daniel Cathiard was a former ski champion, a member of the famous French Olympic team that included Jean-Claude Killy, and it was at that time that he met his wife Florence. Both have impressive track records of running businesses. Daniel built up the small chain of supermarkets that he inherited, and added a chain of sports shops, the group employing nine thousand people. Florence worked with him and also ran her own advertising company, ending up in a senior position in the McCann group. In 1990 they sold all their business interests to concentrate on Smith, where they have lived since. One of their daughters runs the Caudalie beauty products company (products based on the polyphenols extracted from grape pips), and the other two boutique hotels, including the 'Sources de Caudalie', next to Smith.
The Cathiards have since bought Château Cantelys in Martillac, and also, in 2012, part of the vineyard of Château Le Thil, as well as the house and the park. More recently they have been involved in the consortium which bought Château Bearegard (Pomerol) and Château Bastor Lamontagne (Sauternes).
Please make sure that you have read the terms of this offer which are different from those of the main website. If you are unclear as to what is involved in primeur purchases please do call us, but see the 'practical notes' below.
Ordering
Prices are per case as listed 'in bond London'.
Pre-Orders are a firm commitment from you to buy the wines you order on release, subject to the price being below the upper price of the estimated band on our website. You may also set your own upper price limit, lower or higher than ours. Pre-orders will be fulfilled subject to availability. Providing this firm commitment to us effectively gives you priority.
Wines listed on the website (after any pre-orders and allocations have been fulfilled) can be ordered in the usual way via the website order form or by email or telephone 020 7221 1982, always subject to stock remaining.
Confirmation
All orders will be confirmed by email and are contractually binding unless written cancellation is received within seven days of the confirmation date, apart from pre-orders which are binding if the release price is below the top estimate or other price you have set.
Invoices are raised at the In Bond price, excluding any duty and VAT which will become payable at the prevailing rates on arrival of the wine if required duty paid.
Payment is required on sight of invoice, by cash, cheque, debit card or credit transfer. We reserve the right to charge 2% per month on invoices unpaid after 30 days.
Delivery
- Shipment to our bond (LCB Creek Road) and insurance are included in the in bond price.
- Delivery is free to Lea and Sandeman / Elephant storage accounts, both duty paid and in bond.
- Other deliveries (In Bond and Duty Paid) are also free subject to a minimum order from the offer of £1000, orders below this total will be charged £16.50+ VAT when the wine invoices are issued. We will group deliveries and this is a charge for your entire purchases, not a per-case charge.
- Delivery for 2016 Bordeaux primeurs will probably be completed by October 2019, but we make no guarantee as to specific delivery times, and some of the Sauternes may be later.
Practical notes - how it works
We start a sale in each customer's name and add all their primeur orders to one sale which is invoiced at the end of the campaign (or when the customer wishes) for immediate payment. We and our customers find that having a single invoice for the vintage is the simpler option, but do please note that confirmed orders are still binding as above even if the final invoice has not been issued.
When the wine is shipped, unless previously specified we will assume that delivery is to be to bonded storage with Elephant Storage, but in any case, we will contact you requesting any alternative instructions. If you have another bonded delivery address you would like the wine to go to, please tell us at the time of ordering. If the wines are required duty-paid we will issue invoices at the rates prevailing at the time for the excise duty (currently £25.98 per case) and the VAT (currently at 20%) on the total of the wine cost and the duty.
Half-bottles, Magnums and larger bottles.
One of the additional advantages of buying en primeur is being able to order the wine in the bottle size you want. Even if a wine is only listed in one size, you can order any bottle or case size you want if the property supplies it, but you must order the case/bottle size you require and check that the correct size has been invoiced.
Additional charges are as follows:-
- +£15 per case of 24 half-bottles
- +£15 per case of 6 Magnums (2 bottles equivalent, 1.5 litres each)
- +£35 per individually boxed Double Magnum (4 bottles equivalent, 3 litres)
- +£45 per individually boxed Imperial (8 bottles equivalent, 6 litres) for Salmanazars, Balthazars, Nebuchadnezzars and Melchiors please enquire for availability and price.