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Château Lafite Rothschild is, so far, James' top rated wines of the 2014 en primeur campaign. The new vintage from the famous Pauillac first growth, part of Les Domaines Barons de Rothschild, which also owns Château Rieussec in Sauternes and l'Evangile in Pomerol, has a distinctive "sexy, perfumed and feminine style" as James writes in the note.
As James explains in his recent blog, the vintage seems to point to the Left Bank in terms of quality. Charles Chevallier, technical director at Lafite, as well as l'Evangile and Rieussec, explains that the harvest in Pomerol, as a result of rain, was more problematic than in Pauillac. The Médoc appellation, despite some rains and overcast periods during the summer, enjoyed a dry and luminous September that helped recover the lost time and produce rich and dense wines.
In this video, Charles explains that at the time of the harvesting he was not sure what direction the vintage was going to take. It wasn't until the tastings for the final blending began, right after malolactic fermentation, that he discovered most of the wines tended to have an inclination towards roundness with great length and structure.
–JGA