WTN: A couple of wines from Graves

The following wines, drunk during separate dinners at home, were popped-and-poured.

1995 Ch. Smith Haut Lafitte, Pessac-Leognan
Even with plenty of wood, cigar, dried leaves, and some vanilla, the bouquet on this wine is, at best, primary. The first sip, and succeeding ones, were very tannic. It remained tight throughout the dinner, and (thanks to) only the fatty dry-aged rib eye helped me make something out of this wine. The last pour, which was way past cheese, coffee and dessert courses, showed a glimpse of an impressive classic Graves structure (I don’t quite recall the last time I mentioned the words “classic” and “SHL”in the same sentence), and good pure black fruit that’s nicely provided with a firm tannic backbone. That last pour enabled me to give a rating of B+ for now but with, imho and especially if it retains that somewhat of a throwback style that I sensed, a strong potential to go up a notch with time.

1995 Ch, La Louviere, Pessac-Leognan
This wine had that good Graves nose of tobacco mingled with some wood, herb, and earthy notes. Very high in acidity, this appeared to be another backward wine that also started as not being accessible tonight. Midway through our dinner, it started to open up to reveal very lean level of fruit, amidst the ever-present acidity and some harshness. I’m not that crazy about the balance at this point, but it still served as a good food complement. B

(I don’t quite recall the last time I mentioned the words “classic” and “SHL”in the same sentence),

certainly not tasting anything 1998 through 2004!
though I hear they've dialed back a bit
I've had some very good La Louviere rouges- primarily the '90 and '98, but never had the '95

Surprised to read they'd changed style that long ago - I remember really liking the '98 SHL at a tasting last year that Ben G. had put together (where the '98 SHL showed very nicely alongside '98 HB and La Miss).

Surprised to read they'd changed style that long ago - I remember really liking the '98 SHL at a tasting last year that Ben G. had put together (where the '98 SHL showed very nicely alongside '98 HB and La Miss).

All from Pessac? Glad to hear, as I have both '98 HB and LMHB.

Ramon,
This was at a dinner with a mix of wines (Graves, '82 Bdx, CdP, Cote-Rotie and Sauternes) served blind in different flights - Ben did one flight of '98 Pape Clement, LMHB, Haut Brion and Smith-Haut-Lafitte, and for my tastes (and a lot of others) the SHL and La Mission were the real eye-catchers in that flight. Didn't find anything overly modern or spoofed up in that SHL, and it's a wine I've kept an eye out for at auction lately.

Thanks for the additional info on the '98 Graves wines, Salil. I'm glad that they showed up well. Those and a couple from Saint Julien are the only ones from the Left Bank that I decided on stashing away from this vintage.