TN: 1995 Château Lafon-Rochet (France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe)

[jmccready]

• 1995 Château Lafon-Rochet - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe (6/23/2012)
  Medium purple color(by candlelight but pretty), dark berry fruits prominent with toasty oak on nose. An almost perfect example of a structured, mature St. Estephe. Rich fruit shows through
  the typical hard backbone that is charactertic of this commune. Current vintages are reported to have a greater percentage of Merlot and frankly I haven't tasted newer releases, but I have
  to believe the old style grip still dominates. This property may not produce a hedonistic, fleshy style but it ages well and if the '95 is any indication of future vintages, then stack a few bottles
  away and write rib-eye on the side of the case. (89 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

[Claret]

I enjoyed my last bottle of the 1995 several months ago. The tannins have started to melt away.

[Tom In DC]

Hi jmccready,

The trend these days is to bust the chops of the cognoscenti/pundits who *actually* taste the wines and prognosticate about their future evolution. At the same time, I'm having difficulty giving a pass to your projections based on a 17 year old wine about recent vintages that you have not tasted. Sure, it is a St. Estèphe, so it's going to be structured, but this is a Tesseron estate so I'd be more inclined to think that a lot has changed in the intervening decade and a half.

Just curious about your thought process...

Tom

[jmccready]

Hello Tom, you have given me another reason to buy another bottle of claret. Maybe an 05 or even 06 or 08 of LR. My thoughts are simply that
the terroir of Bordeaux in general gives structure to the riper fruit that makes the wines more appealing in their youth. Even shifts in grape mix,
new ownership, etc should not obliterate the underlying backbone of the terroir. Hence St. Estephe in general should benefit from softer, richer
fruit but still maintain its structure. If past vintages have evolved nicely(in arguably the least favored of the top communes), then newer vintages
should age as well. But I will soon see if a newer vintage of LR is mow more akin to a Napa or Sonoma Cab.. Maybe someone who has tasted
LR recently can save me a little money and give an opinion. Perhaps my sense of confidence in the basic nature of Bordeaux is no longer relevant to
to the modern style. But you are correct, don't predict unless you taste. Forgive any generalzations and there many-I am not a professional writer.
Jim

[Houndsong]

The 2000 is a rock. The 2002 less so, but that be a vintage thing and not a style thing.

[Blanquito]

Lafon Rochet is run by Alfred's nephew, yes? Maybe the insidiousness hasn't spread up the Gironde as much yet? I agree with Hound about the 2000 and 2002, and I've also had the 2003 Lafon Rochet which was pretty good for the vintage.

I can't let this thread go by without thanking BWE for the 1996 Lafon Rochet tip (my first ever BWE inspired wine purchase for $27 from PC), which is in a great place these days.

[DavidG]

[curmudgeon]I guess it's time for today's generation of "Bordeaux is being made in too ripe a style to age" whiners to supplant the generation that whined about the '82s. Yes, that was a generation ago, and that cohort was finally convinced or drowned out by the undisputed greatness of aged 1982s. Although there have been further changes in vineyard and winemaking techniques since then, I predict that in another generation today's whiners will be happily slurping the 2000s and 2005s and 2009s that are still available. They will have been replaced by the next generation to take up the call to whine about the 2030s being too ripe. Then again, with global warming maybe they'll be growing pineapples in Bordeaux and Cabernet in Norway.[\curmudgeon]

All in good cheer, of course!

[Blanquito]

I thought the Pontet Canet-Tesseron vertical in NYC was the perfect object lesson of the pendulum: the older wines began as not-my-style, improving to okay-to-good in the late 80's, going to better-and-better by the mid 90's, until they swung out to again to not-my-style. The 1996 was the sweet spot of that stylistic pendulum.

It's funny how the older wines' flaws are usually chaulked up to poor wine making while one's take on the new modern monsters are considered just a matter of taste...

[DavidG]

I'll concede that it could be related to a change in viticultural practices and winemaking style. But is it also possible that it could be a demonstration of where your sweet spot is in the maturity curve?

[Tom In DC]

I don't know much about any insidious spread - I simply think you have to at least taste before assumptions in any direction are made.

But I can see Jim-not-the-BD's point - if any terroir was likely to retain its old-school inclination, it would be St. Estèphe!

[Blanquito]

David, my bad, I should have noted that I wasn't commenting on your note per se, but rather thinking about innumerable threads (mostly from the other boards, some of them threads started by HWSRNL!) about style, ageability, quality, etc.

But you raise a valid point and one that reminds me how much fun wine is as a hobby. Perhaps the Tesseron results were due to a maturity phase. Or vintage characteristics. Or an evolution in wine making (which Alfred did tell us had happened between him and his father at Pontet-Canet). And the younger vintages could turn out a better with more cellar time and I honestly hope they do, but there were flavors and textures in younger vintages that were hard to imagine in the older wines. Maybe these "new" aspects were there on release in the older wines or maybe the new wines will develop better for them, only time will tell. But your point is a good one, that such debates have been going on for decades, maybe longer. And that makes this fun. I can't wait to try my 2000s in another 5-10, and my 2003s and 2005s!

[jmccready]

I forgot to give a strong second to David's post on the 1982s. It seems that there are still experienced claret lovers who are skeptical that current ripe vintages will yield similar results in time as the 82s. It will indeed take time to play out but should provide a lot of hedonistic and intellectual fun
along the way-so I guess that is a second to Blanquito also. Heck, after several glasses of bubbly I can agree with everybody.