Winemaker Notes
Blend: 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Concentrated wine. Intense aromas of grilled meat, spice and plum skin. Full-bodied, with big silky tannins and lots of fruit. Long and chewy.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
One of the better wines (and also reasonably priced) to emerge from this property over recent years, this dense ruby/purple-colored wine shows a complex nose of earth, underbrush, creosote, creme de cassis, and dried herbs. Sporting a new yellow/orange label that matches the dramatic paint job on the chateau itself, the wine has a deep ruby/purple color, medium to full body, fine ripeness as well as purity, and moderate tannin in the finish.
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Vinous
The 2000 Lafon-Rochet is a vintage that I have not encountered for many years. Now showing some bricking on the rim, it has quite an exotic bouquet with maraschino cherry, strawberry, balsamic and brown spices, nicely defined and holding up well. The palate is medium-bodied and well-balanced, with grainy tannins. Maybe a little dryness is beginning to creep in, yet there is a fine grip and a long tobacco finish. Tasted at the Lafon-Rochet vertical at the property.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Deeply colored, concentrated, and distinctive, St. Estephe is the go-to for great, age-worthy and reliable Bordeaux reds. Separated from Pauillac merely by a stream, St. Estephe is the farthest northwest of the highest classed villages of the Haut Medoc and is therefore subject to the most intense maritime influence of the Atlantic.
St. Estephe soils are rich in gravel like all of the best sites of the Haut Medoc but here the formation of gravel over clay creates a cooler atmosphere for its vines compared to those in the villages farther downstream. This results in delayed ripening and wines with higher acidity compared to the other villages.
While they can seem a bit austere when young, St. Estephe reds prove to live very long in the cellar. Traitionally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, many producers now add a significant proportion of Merlot to the blend, which will soften any sharp edges of the more tannic, Cabernet.
The St. Estephe village contains two second growths, Chateau Montrose and Cos d’Estournel.