Chateau Lafon-Rochet 2015
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Robert
Parker - Decanter
Product Details
Winemaker Notes
Blend: 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 4% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
A sinuous line of tannins runs through this structured wine. It lifts the dark plum and berry fruits and give shape to the spicy, firm wine. As the estate builds in strength, the style of this perfumed, stylish wine will be seen as a benchmark. Drink from 2025.
Cellar Selection -
Jeb Dunnuck
A gem from Saint-Estèphe is the 2015 Château Lafon-Rochet and it’s certainly one of the top wines from this appellation in 2015. Elegant, medium to full-bodied, beautifully pure and refined, it offers impressive notes of sweet dark fruits, crème de cassis, classy oak and a kiss of minerality. It’s the finesse and quality of tannin, as well as its solid mid-palate, that sets this beauty apart. This wine is 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and the rest Petit Verdot, and it’s hidden little gem worth tracking down!
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James Suckling
Very perfumed with blackberries, blueberries and cloves. Dried lavender as well. Full body and linear and refined tannins. Pretty spices come together with the clean fruit at the end. Hard not to drink now but two or three years of bottle age will pull it together. Drink in 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The medium garnet-purple colored 2015 Lafon-Rochet is reduced on the nose to begin, with tar and earth aromas over black fruits and herbs. The medium-bodied palate is vibrant and refreshing with firm, grainy tannins.
Rating: 91+? -
Decanter
More florality than usual on the lifted, gamey fruit. Less robust and more elegant than previous years; a very good wine from this château.
Other Vintages
2022- Vinous
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James
Suckling - Decanter
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker - Decanter
- Vinous
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Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator - Decanter
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Robert
Parker
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling - Decanter
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wine
Spectator -
Wilfred
Wong -
Robert
Parker
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Wine
Enthusiast - Decanter
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James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling - Decanter
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Enthusiast -
James
Suckling - Decanter
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Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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James
Suckling
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator
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Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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Wine &
Spirits -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator -
Connoisseurs'
Guide
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Robert
Parker
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Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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.
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.