Ch. Lafite Rothschild (No label) (1.5 L)

WA: Why is it that Lafite-Rothschild is often so distressingly irregular from bottle to bottle? Much of the inconsistency during the sixties and mid-seventies can be explained by the relaxed bottling schedule, which saw the wines blended and bottled over an unusually long period (12+ months, compared to the estate’s modern day bottling operation that never takes longer than 2-4 weeks). I have had some great bottles of the 1975 Lafite, most of them in the wine’s first 15 years of life. Since then, I have seen wines that appeared cooked and stewed, with a Barolo tar-like aroma, as well as others with the classic Pauillac, lead-pencil, cedar, cassis, and tobacco aromatic dimension. The 1975 is a powerful Lafite, and troublesome bottles tend to reveal more tannin and funkiness than others, which have a roasted character, combined with a gravelly, mineral underpinning. As this wine has aged, it appears to be less of a sure bet. In most cases, it has been an outstanding wine, as the bottle tasted in December sugg