100 James Suckling - Jamessuckling.com

This is what the Medoc is all about. The freshness and delicacy of this wine in combination with its serious concentration and firm core are totally stunning. Time has already worked its magic and this is already delicious, but has decades in front of it. Drink or hold.

99 Jeff Leve - The Wine Cellar Insider

legant, fresh, vibrant, lively, focused and refined, there is a beautiful purity to the fruit found here. Classic Pauillac here, but the wine is also lush and almost opulent in nature. Medium/full-bodied, with delicious array of red and black fruits, tobacco leaf, crushed stone, smoke and crisp red fruits in the end note, this beauty demands at least 15 more years to start delivering its true potential. The wine was made from blending 82.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and .5% Cabernet Franc. This is the highest percentage of Merlot in the blend since 1995.

98 Decanter

It displays, as Lafite always does, more of a laid back elegance than Latour, and the difference between the two once again highlights the huge differences in terroir between north and south Pauillac, with the deep gravels here giving finesse, composure, almost nonchalance. It tames with a whisper, bringing you to submission by gently, purposefully and ever so slowly layering one thing on top of another. It has gorgeously pure and precise fruit on the nose, while the palate displays a multitude of flavours, from charcoal to cassis to crushed stone, and yet no one thing dominates. There are a ton of tannins, but they are individually fine, and it's only in retrospect that you realise how many of them there are. The tone of Lafite is speaking over the vintage, and it's going to run and run.

97 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

The deep garnet colored 2009 Lafite Rothschild bursts from the glass with red and black currant preserves, warm plums, mulberries and kirsch scents plus suggestions of sweaty leather, cigar box and menthol. Medium-bodied, elegant and firmly structured, it has wonderful freshness and a long earthy/meaty finish.