The 2009 Lafon-Rochet has a splendid bouquet with dark cherries, iodine, violet and iris flower, certainly the most precocious Lafon-Rochet on the nose thus far. The palate is medium-bodied with very good concentration, rounded in texture and counterbalanced with a fine bead of acidity. Layers of red fruit mixed with spice and cedar demonstrate acceptable length. Tasted at the Lafon-Rochet vertical at the property. -- Neal Martin

This wine seems to be one of the few that has not yet recovered from bottling. In a somewhat monolithic latched-down style it has plenty of stuffing lots of structure and an impressive dark ruby/purple color but it is very hard to coax from the glass. It is a rather classic St.-Estephe made by the Tesseron family with its distinctive blood orange label but this wine seems to beg for another 5-7 years of bottle age. The final blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon 27% Merlot 5% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc has some impressive fruit but the wine just seems slightly more clipped and narrow than I remember it from barrel. Hopefully time will mellow out this impression. Anticipated maturity: 2020-2035.