2012 Carruades de Lafite, Pauillac, Bordeaux

2012 Carruades de Lafite, Pauillac, Bordeaux

Product: 20128015109
Prices start from £324.50 per bottle (75cl). Buying options
2012 Carruades de Lafite, Pauillac, Bordeaux

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Available for delivery or collection. Pricing includes duty and VAT.

Description

Ideal with a 2-hour carafe.

Finesse and savoury black fruits and mint leaf with gentle rosemary. It has a quiet concentration, together with layers of graphite, and slate, and a mouthwatering finish. Both quiet and yet powerful, it gives an insight into what makes Lafite so singular, and that is all you can really ask of a 2nd wine. Interesting also how it differs from Petit Mouton, such a brilliant distillation of the difference between the two estates.

Drink 2022 - 2034

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (March 2022)

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Critics reviews

Neal Martin, Vinous89/100

The 2012 Carruades de Lafite has quite a perfumed and floral bouquet, pencil shaving and tobacco scents filtering through the brambly red fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with supple tannins, lighter than the Le Petit Mouton tasted alongside and just a little conservative on the finish. Tasted twice at Bordeaux Index's Ten Year-On tasting and blind at the Southwold Ten-Year On tasting.

Drink 2022 - 2030

Neal Martin, Vinous.com (September 2022)

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Antonio Galloni, Vinous88/100

The 2012 Carruades de Lafite is friendly, open and quite expressive. Sweet tobacco, cedar, mint, dried cherries and herbs open up in a mid-weight, fleshy red to drink over the next decade or so. The 2012 is soft, silky and easygoing.

Antonio Galloni, Vinous.com (January 2016)

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Jane Anson93/100

Ideal with a 2-hour carafe.

Finesse and savoury black fruits and mint leaf with gentle rosemary. It has a quiet concentration, together with layers of graphite, and slate, and a mouthwatering finish. Both quiet and yet powerful, it gives an insight into what makes Lafite so singular, and that is all you can really ask of a 2nd wine. Interesting also how it differs from Petit Mouton, such a brilliant distillation of the difference between the two estates.

Drink 2022 - 2034

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com (March 2022)

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Wine Advocate89/100

A very good second wine from Lafite Rothschild, the 2012 Carruades de Lafite (53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot) shows dark ruby/plum/purple color, cedar wood, blackcurrants, medium-bodied, ripe tannin and a nice textured mouthfeel. It is very attractive, soft and ideal for drinking over the next 15 or more years.

Drink 2015 - 2030

Robert M. Parker, Jr., Wine Advocate (April 2015)

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Jancis Robinson MW17/20

53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 42% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot.

Rather a blueish tint. It is extraordinary how refined the Lafite wines are, even in this difficult year. One whiff of this and it's Lafite stable stuff. Albeit it very light and pale with quite strong acidity. Firm and fine. Bone-dry finish. No concessions. I think this will probably always be a tad demanding to drink but it's certainly trying hard to make as good a fist of it as possible.

Drink 2018 - 2030

Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com (April 2013)

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Wine Spectator91-94/100

Tasted non-blind.

Offers a smoky, fleshy feel, with dark plum, charcoal and coffee notes. Features nice grip on the finish, revealing a lingering plum skin feel.

James Molesworth, Wine Spectator (April 2013)

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James Suckling92/100

Perfumed and pretty aromas of blackcurrants, mineral and stones. Full body, very structured and intense. Tannic and muscular. Serious. 

Better in 2020

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (February 2015)

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About this WINE

Château Lafite Rothschild

Château Lafite Rothschild

The iconic Château Lafite Rothschild was classified as a first growth in 1855 and has been in the Rothschild family since 1868. Today, Lafite is headed up by Saskia de Rothschild, daughter of long-time steward Baron Eric de Rothschild.

Château Lafite Rothschild is an iconic first-growth property in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux, France. It achieved its top-tier rank in 1855 and has been in the Rothschild family since 1868. Today, Lafite is headed up by Saskia de Rothschild, daughter of long-time steward Baron Eric de Rothschild.

The property is located at the northern tip of Pauillac, separated by St Estèphe by marshland and the Jalle de Breuil stream. Two areas of the vineyard are particularly notable: the gravel plateau, which is the heart of the grand vin; and the Plateau de Carruades, from which Lafite’s second wine takes its name. The vineyard is planted mostly to Cabernet Sauvignon (70%), along with Merlot (25%), Cabernet Franc (3%) and Petit Verdot (2%).

A new cellar was completed here in time for the 2011 harvest, with a combination of stainless steel and concrete tanks, of varying sizes. The barrels come from Lafite’s own cooperage, located not far from the property.

In addition to its 110 hectares of vines, the estate has 300 hectares of woods and marshes. The team consider this to be an integral part of the ecosystem.

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Pauillac

Pauillac

Pauillac is the aristocrat of the Médoc boasting boasting 75 percent of the region’s First Growths and with Grand Cru Classés representing 84 percent of Pauillac's production.

For a small town, surrounded by so many familiar and regal names, Pauillac imparts a slightly seedy impression. There are no grand hotels or restaurants – with the honourable exception of the establishments owned by Jean-Michel Cazes – rather a small port and yacht harbour, and a dominant petrochemical plant.

Yet outside the town, , there is arguably the greatest concentration of fabulous vineyards throughout all Bordeaux, including three of the five First Growths. Bordering St Estèphe to the north and St Julien to the south, Pauillac has fine, deep gravel soils with important iron and marl deposits, and a subtle, softly-rolling landscape, cut by a series of small streams running into the Gironde. The vineyards are located on two gravel-rich plateaux, one to the northwest of the town of Pauillac and the other to the south, with the vines reaching a greater depth than anywhere else in the Médoc.

Pauillac's first growths each have their own unique characteristics; Lafite Rothschild, tucked in the northern part of Pauillac on the St Estèphe border, produces Pauillac's most aromatically complex and subtly-flavoured wine. Mouton Rothschild's vineyards lie on a well-drained gravel ridge and - with its high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon - can produce (in its best years) Pauillac's most decadently rich, fleshy and exotic wine.

Latour, arguably Bordeaux's most consistent First Growth, is located in southern Pauillac next to St Julien. Its soil is gravel-rich with superb drainage, and Latour's vines penetrate as far as five metres into the soil. It produces perhaps the most long-lived wines of the Médoc.

Recommended Châteaux
Ch. Lafite-Rothschild, Ch. Latour, Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Ch. Pichon-Longueville Baron, Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande, Ch. Lynch-Bages, Ch. Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Ch, Pontet-Canet, Les Forts de Latour, Ch. Haut-Batailley, Ch. Batailley, Ch. Haut-Bages Libéral.

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Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon Blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.

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