2018 Smith Haut Lafitte Les Hauts de Smith
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Tasting notes
The 2018 Les Hauts de Smith has a generous nose of black cherries, boysenberry, touches of orange blossom and light cedar aromas. The palate is medium-bodied with sappy black fruit, and very saline on the entry, more black pepper and clove notes furnishing the granular finish. Just a tad drier than I would like, maybe; hopefully it will gain a bit of flesh with bottle age.
Critic scores
Average Score
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Neal Martin
More reviews and scores
The 2018 Les Hauts De Smith is the younger vine, more Merlot-dominated wine from this great estate, and it's a 60/40 split of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. It has lots of classic Graves earthy minerality as well as plenty of ripe darker berry fruits, notes of green herbs, truffle, and cedar, a ripe, plush, rounded texture, and medium-bodied richness and length. This outstanding, complex Pessac is ideal for enjoying any time over the coming 7-8 years, if not upwards of a decade.
The 2018 Les Hauts de Smith is a powerhouse. I recall a much more open-knit wine from en primeur, but the bottled 2018 packs a serious punch. Inky dark fruit, chocolate, cloves, gravel and licorice give the 2018 a distinctly brooding feel. Les Hauts is conceived as a restaurant wine, but the 2018 is far from an easygoing example. There is plenty of depth, power and structure. A burst of dark red fruit laced with floral overtones punctuates the finish.
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.