2003 Château Smith Haut Lafitte
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Tasting notes
A beauty of cassis, plum, tobacco leaf and spice, this dark plum/purple-hued, medium to full-bodied 2003 reveals sweet, round, cassis flavors. It has reached full maturity, but shows no signs of decline, and should continue to hold at this plateau for another decade. Although the 2003 is not up to the perfect levels of the 2009 and 2010, it is unquestionably a noteworthy success in a vintage that did not favor Pessac-Leognan.
Critic scores
Robert Parker
Robert Parker
More reviews and scores
Bricky garnet. Seems still to smell of oak – cedary spice and mocha. Something slightly less clean and a little farmy too. Thickish tannins but resolved, gamey on the palate. More flavour than finesse. Persistent though. (JH)
Deep crimson. Very round with fully resolved tannins. Much easier and possibly more worked than most with some Graves fragrance. (Average group score: 15.8) (JR)
About the producer
Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte is one of the leading lights of Pessac-Léognan today – all thanks to Daniel and Florence Cathiard, who took over the property in 1990 and have since transformed the estate, converting to biodynamics and crafting wines of increasing finesse.