Carruades is the second wine of Château Lafite Rothschild, and it is worth being plain about what that means. Each year the estate selects the parcels and vats that will go into the grand vin; what does not make the cut, along with fruit from younger vines and from the Carruades plateau that gives the wine its name, is bottled under this label. It carries more Merlot than Lafite itself, which makes it rounder and quicker to come round.
What you are buying is genuine Lafite fruit, from Lafite land, made by the Lafite team, at a fraction of the grand vin's price. 1985 was a warm and generous year across the Médoc, and that softer style suited a second wine particularly well.
It is not the great bottle, and nobody at the château would pretend otherwise. It is a real bottle of Pauillac from one specific year, with one of the most recognisable names in Bordeaux on the label.
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Producer: Carruades de Lafite
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Vintage: 1985
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Appellation: Pauillac AOC
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Format: 75cl
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Region: Bordeaux, France
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Style: Red
Where it is likely to be now. Second wines mature faster than the grand vin, so a 1985 Carruades will be fully developed and may well be fading; it is bought for the year and the name, and drinkability at this age cannot be guaranteed.
Who it suits. Suits a forty-first birthday where the budget matters — a genuine Lafite-estate bottle from the right year, without the first-growth price.
Condition. Graded good, which for a bottle of 1985 means an honest cellar-aged example with no damage worth reporting.
Provenance. Bought to order from a professional European merchant. We check fill, label and capsule when the bottle reaches us and photograph it before it ships.
Delivered in 7 to 10 working days, tracked. Transit cover can be added at checkout.
Sold as a collectible item, as seen. No guarantee is given on drinkability.
