1922 Château Lafite Rothschild

The 1922 Lafite-Rothschild, recorked at the property in 2002, has a complex bouquet: light red fruit, damp, loamy earth and a hint of lavender and cedar. Perhaps it doesn't have the precision of the 1919 alongside, but that is quibbling. It actually gains intensity in the glass with a whiff of the antique bureau, just a touch of wood varnish. The palate is medium-bodied with tart red fruit, candied orange peel, allspice and graphite. There's a soupçon of pepperiness here, pretty linear (one of the tropes of off-vintage Lafite) with a pure, entrancing finish and a kiss, just a peck on the cheek, of bitter cherry on the aftertaste. Like the aforementioned 1919, this surpasses expectations and evidences prudent reconditioning twenty years earlier. Tasted at the Lafite-Rothschild vertical at Ami restaurant in Hong Kong.