This is so beautiful now and exhibits real aged-Bordeaux character with currant-bush, tobacco and berry aromas that follow through to a medium body with firm tannins and a creamy finish. Still so together. The finish turns to cigar box, sandalwood and berry. Drink or hold. Tasted July 2021

Last tasted in 2018 at the Lafite 160th anniversary supper, and it is delivering just as much pleasure a few years later - this is classically true when a wine is on its plateau, particularly in good vintages, when it can hold the line for a stubbornly long time. This just contains so much of what makes Lafite Lafite - there is an effortless elegance, it is subtle but rewarding, building in layers and complexity over the palate. Now in the tertiary period where the fine tannins are fully integrated but still offering support to brambled fruits, cured leather, black spice, sage, mint and salted truffles. Baron Eric in charge, Gilbert Rokvam technical director and Yves le Canu director. The vineyard was 90ha at the time, so around 20ha smaller than today. 5% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Drinking Window 2021 - 2036
Tasted by Jane Anson (at Bordeaux, 01 Feb 2021)
Part of Anson: How the 1985 Bordeaux first growths taste now

The 1985 Lafite-Rothschild has long been one of my favorite wines from the vintage and certainly it is streets ahead of Latour. Beginning to show its age with modest bricking on the rim, the bouquet takes time to unfold in the glass, revealing scents of black fruit, briary, smoke and Italian delicatessen. The aromas are not powerful, but refined. That can also be said of the palate: beautifully balanced with a fine bead of acidity, it opens gently in the glass to reveal pretty cedar-infused red fruit, walnut and a hint of sandalwood. Perhaps in recent years it has lost some of its density but it does remain a delightful Lafite-Rothschild that is probably best enjoyed sooner rather than later. Tasted at Lafite-Rothschild. www.vinous.com

The 1985 Château Lafite-Rothschild is fully mature yet still has classic Lafite elegance, with that tell-tale cedar pencil note in spades. Mature red and black fruits, cedar, smoked tobacco, and savory herb and leather notes all give way to a medium-bodied, elegant, finesse-driven Lafite that has resolved tannins and beautiful overall balance. It's not massive or overtly concentrated, yet I love its overall grace, balanced, and complexity. I would drink them if I had them.

Medium red. Rather unforthcoming nose hints at redcurrant and cedar, along with a faint herbaceousness. Strong in extract and high in acidity, but today the wine flesh and fruit are dominated by its structure and grip. A marginally disappointing showing for Lafite, in which herbaceous hints and lack of flesh give the wine a slightly disjointed character. I would like to have found greater mid-palate verve. Drink now through 2012.

The 1985 Lafite should be better, but for followers of fashion, its star-studded price will fetch you a moderately intense, cedary, woody, herb-and-leather-scented bouquet, and attractive, very forward and developed flavors displayed in a medium-bodied format. The finish is softly tannic and after a pensive sip, one is likely to ask, Is this all there is? Anticipated maturity: Now-2008. Last tasted, 3/91.

Robert Parker (Bordeaux Book, 3rd Edition Jan 1998)