Vinous - Score: 97 (2018 July)

The 1982 Lafite-Rothschild can be a variable performer. There was a period when it was dwarfed by Latour. However, two recent bottles demonstrate a wine that perhaps has just taken 30+ years to reach its zenith. The bouquet is very intense with blackberry, cedar, graphite and hints of morels, gathering momentum in the glass, perhaps with just a touch more VA than its peers. The palate is medium-bodied and very fresh, lively and tensile with a fine thread of acidity. There is more cohesion and finesse than bottles encountered a decade ago, and a delicate but firm structure that frames the pure blackberry and cedar notes on the sustained finish. Wonderful. Tasted at the Lafite-Rothschild dinner at Amuse Bouche in Hong Kong and then blind at the Lafite-Rothschild 150th anniversary dinner at the property.