2018 Le Petit Haut Lafitte
Estimated value
Buying options
Tasting notes
The 2018 Le Petit Haut Lafitte is ripe and candied on the nose, offering a mixture of blue and blackberry fruit, raspberry coulis and violet scents, more seductive than the Le Petit Haut Lafitte. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent ripe tannins, a fine bead of acidity and just the right amount of spice toward the nicely proportioned finish, which lingers in the mouth. I prefer this to the Les Hauts de Smith.
Critic scores
Average Score
James Suckling
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Checking in as 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot, the 2018 Le Petit Haut Lafitte is a terrific second wine with a complex, nuanced style in its darker currant fruits as well as notes of cedarwood, tobacco, and truffle. With medium-bodied richness, supple, elegant tannins, and outstanding length, drink this charming, elegant, classic Graves over the coming decade.
Cabernet Sauvignon takes center stage in the 2018 Le Petit Haut Lafitte. A powerful, deep wine, the 2018 possesses terrific energy as well as a good deal of Cabernet savoriness. I would prefer to cellar it for at least a few years as it is tightly wound today. Black cherry, blackberry jam, cloves, licorice and chocolate give this imposing red a real feeling of somber intensity.
About the producer
Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte is one of the leading lights of Pessac-Léognan today – all thanks to Daniel and Florence Cathiard, who took over the property in 1990 and have since transformed the estate, converting to biodynamics and crafting wines of increasing finesse.