2020 Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte Rouge Pessac Leognan Cru Classe Bordeaux 750 ml

On Jeb Dunnuck’s list of Top 100 wines of 2023, the 2020 Château Smith Haut Lafitte Pessac-Léognan came in at #6—the top-ranked 100-point wine.

“Absolutely pure gold,” began Dunnuck’s 200-word love letter, in which he called this “one of the most concentrated, rich, and sexy wines in the vintage.” From a spectacular vintage, this is a true wine for the ages, with potential to evolve for the next half century. It stands with fellow Médoc 100-pointers Haut Brion, Lafite-Rothschild, and Cheval Blanc—bottles that go for between $700 and $900.

More than 600 years ago, the Du Boscq family homed in on a gravelly plateau that was known locally as “Lafitte,” but the estate has only truly realized its potential since Florence and Daniel Cathiard bought it in 1990. The two have poured time and money into the château, building a new winery and converting the farming to an exacting, organic-informed standard.

In the three decades since they bought Smith Haut Lafitte, the team has focused on individual terroirs and adopted so-called "bio-precision" in the vineyard, using satellites to monitor tiny details. This allows them to time their harvest on a row-by-row basis and sort the grapes multiple times—both in the vineyard and in the winery, where they use high-tech optical sorting technology to ensure that only perfect berries make it into their wines.

Smith Haut Lafitte has even joined First Growth Châteaux Lafite, Margaux, and Haut-Brion as the rare Bordeaux properties with on-site cooperages. It doesn’t get more hands-on than that, and the devotion to quality shines through in every sip.