Chateau Lafon-Rochet 2016
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The Château Lafon-Rochet 2016 vintage has remarkable strength and length providing much elegance to the tasting experience.
Blend: 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
A sleeper in this vintage, the 2016 Lafon-Rochet is positively stellar. Bright, translucent and super-expressive, the 2016 has so much to offer. Lavender, tobacco, cedar, mint and dried herbs give the 2016 striking aromatic top notes to play off the darker fruit flavors. The 2016 is pure class. Don't miss it.
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James Suckling
An explosion of all manner of black berries with discreet, toasty and smoky oak, makes this a joyful St.-Estèphe. Then the great balance of ripeness, lively acidity and velvety tannins come together beautifully at the elegant finish to make this the best wine from this producer in modern times. Needs two or three years to soften. Try in 2022.
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Decanter
Closed yet concentrated and silky, this takes its time and although there is balance, it's certainly not generous. The high acidity is notable but it softens, deepens, and opens on the palate, revealing black fruits held in a chargrilled frame. Matured in 50% new French and Austrian oak.
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Wine Enthusiast
Now producing impressive wines, this estate has made a firm, rich wine in this vintage. Its tannins are very present, but they have a velvet edge that is immediately attractive. Not that the wine won’t age: its structure and good acidity will see to that. Drink from 2025.
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Wine Spectator
This is vivid, with a mix of steeped red and black currant coulis flavors streaming through, while ample savory, bay leaf, tobacco and warm stone notes course underneath. The elements meld wonderfully on the finish, revealing a tug of savory and earth at the very end. Best from 2023 through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Lafon Rochet is a blend of 25% Merlot, 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot and 6% Cabernet Franc cropped at 46 hectoliters per hectare and matured in 50% new oak. The harvest was between 1 October and 20 October. The alcohol is 13.6%, which is just a little higher here than say Cos d'Estournel or Montrose. It has a very succinct bouquet with blackberry, bilberry and light oyster shell aromas, classic in style, more reserved than I found the 2015 Lafon Rochet last year. The palate is medium-bodied with powerful tannin on the entry, a keen line of acidity (3.65 pH), fine symmetry with a pleasant rondeur on the finish sprinkled with black pepper and tobacco. This is a very fine Lafon Rochet from Basile Tesseron and his team.
Other Vintages
2022- Vinous
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Connoisseurs'
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The chateau is in a choice location, in one of the most prestigious winegrowing areas in the world – between Cos d'Estoumel and Lafite-Rothschild (to the south). It is thus hardly surprising that Guy Tesseron, famous for the quality of his old Cognac, was attracted to Lafon-Rochet some 40 years ago.
After acquiring the estate, he decided that the existing cellar was unworthy of such a fine wine, and had it razed. He built an entirely new one and, in a highly unusual move, built a new chateau as well, in the style of the 17th century chartreuse manor house. Thanks to the great care and attention lavished on Lafon-Rochet, it has become one of the standard bearers of the great wines of Saint-Estèphe in France and around the world.