Another wine that belies its age, and a reminder than the 1950s has often been called the best decade of the 20th century for Bordeaux, especially for the odd-numbered years. This wine is gorgeous, although it's not quite as fresh and young as the 1959. It's a little more aged, but still displays a luscious balance and an elegant, old claret feel in the best sense of the word. After half an hour in the glass it drops slightly, unlike the 1959 which just keeps on going. The conditions in 1955 were mild in February and cold and frosty in March, with a great flowering in May followed by a summer heatwave tempered by a few rains in September. This was the first harvest for the new manager at Lafite, Mr Portet. They sold everything at the time, and have since bought bottles back. (JA)

Distinguished by beautiful plummy, spicy flavors that are full and rich and made exotic by time. It's mature and complete, and what a finish!

While the ’55 Lafite is not in the league of sound examples of the other two Pauillac First Growths in this vintage, it was the star of the ’55 flight on this occasion. The nose is deep and wonderfully complex, offering up notes of fresh mint, red fruit, dried hay, tobacco leaf, earth and cedary, spicy wood. On the palate the wine is medium-bodied, complex and ethereal, with good intensity of flavor, and is just now beginning to show the faintest sign of tailing off in the finish. The acids remain sound here, and though the tannins are long gone, this wine still has some years of good drinking ahead of it. I suspect that today the true quality of ’55 Lafite is best sought in magnums. A very elegant and stylish middleweight that is quite enjoyable to drink now, it is by no means a blockbuster, and some may well find it a bit too delicate for First Growth.