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Lafleur 2019

RegionBordeaux
Subregion France > Bordeaux > Right Bank > Pomerol
ColourRed
TypeStill
Grape VarietyMerlot/Cabernet Franc

One of Bordeaux's biggest name "cult wines". Tiny production levels and a long pedigree of great quality ensure that collectors fight for an allocation every year despite the high prices. The vineyard totals 4.5ha, with 0.69ha going to a second wine, Les Pensées de Lafleur. The vineyard is roughly half-and-half Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

View all vintages of this wine | View all wines by Lafleur

Label

Tasting Notes

The 2019 Lafleur is an utterly profound young wine that unwinds in the glass with aromas of rose petals, raspberries and sweet spices mingled with notions of blood orange, violets and fresh tobacco that are hauntingly reminiscent of this estate's great 1982. Full-bodied, deep and seamless, it's layered and multidimensional, with a concentrated core of vibrant fruit, lively acids and ripe, powdery tannins, concluding with a long, searingly intense finish. This magical Lafleur is unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage.Drink Date 2029 - 2069

100
William Kelley, RobertParker.com (April 2022), April 2022

If tasting the 2019 Château Lafleur doesn't just blow you away, I'm not sure what will. A perfect wine, if such a thing exists, it offers such a complex, singular profile in its black raspberries, kirsch liqueur, licorice, exotic flowers, white truffles, and sandalwood. On the palate, it has serious structure, yet the tannins build with time in the glass, and the mid-palate density and balance are so flawlessly integrated, you have to actually hunt for the structure. Pure, sensationally rich, and at the same time elegant, with awesome depth of fruit, this is what wine dreams are made of. It might be the finest young wine to ever pass my lips. It needs a solid decade of bottle age, 15 years would be even better (it will still blow your mind any time over the coming decade), and it will evolve gracefully over the following 30-40 years.

100
Jeb Dunnuck, JebDunnuck.com, April 2022

The 2019 Lafleur has a more fruit-driven bouquet, perhaps a little less cerebral than its peers in this flight. Mulberry intermixed with pencil box and undergrowth. With aeration, thankfully, it does gain more nuance and complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, symmetrical, quite austere with Early Grey, bay leaf and clove, superb crescendo towards the almost audacious finish. Stunning. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting. Drink 2026-2065.

99
Neal Martin, vinous.com (Southwold), February 2023

This is crazy on the nose with crushed stones and violets really rising above the glass, together with iodine, seaweed and ink. Spellbinding. Full-bodied, yet so tight and reserved, with a fine cashmere-like texture and endless length and energy. You can sense the stones and the earth here, but then it reaches to the skies. It’s open, but you feel the depth of the soil. A reference point for the vintage. Try after 2028.

100
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com, February 2022

Made from 53% Merlot and 47% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), the 2019 Lafleur is deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly grows in the glass, emerging with scents of blueberry compote, prunes, and dark chocolate, followed by suggestions of garrigue, cedar, and wild sage. The full-bodied palate is firm, grainy, and hedonic, featuring loads of savory nuances and finishing on a lingering aniseed note.

98+
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent, May 2023

Rich and powerful on the nose, with layer upon layer of black and brambly fruits, fresh tobacco leaf. Really one to drink in, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, pencil lead, tobacco, flint, crushed earth, cigar box, inky and powerful and extremely confident. It has so much of the freshness and power of the 2016, with hints of smoked caramel that point to the generosity that is contained within the layers, set against the severity of slate minerality and tight tannins. Likely to shut down pretty severely from now, needs to be given a good 10 years.

99
Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com, January 2022

Tasted blind. Deep crimson. Light, fresh, transparent on the nose but so sweet and gorgeous on the palate. Good combo! Very long and detailed. Real richness and complexity here. Throat-warming. 15%
Drink 2028– 2050

19
Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, February 2023
Read more tasting notes...

The 2019 Lafleur has a bouquet that takes its time to unfurl in the glass, then renders you speechless. Mind-bogglingly intense black fruit, crushed stone and a hint of licorice display astonishing delineation, and blue fruit emerges with time. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiseled tannins. As is customary, this feels very strict and, on reflection, represents the most quintessential Lafleur I have tasted in my many years of visiting the estate. Tensile from start to finish, it fans out audaciously and seems to never end. Baptiste Guinaudeau compared it with the 2005 and described it as a "[four-letter-expletive] you" Lafleur. When you taste this, you see what he means. An awe-inspiring Pomerol that will give decades of drinking pleasure for those prepared to wait. 2030 - 2070

100
Neal Martin, vinous.com, February 2022

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2019 Lafleur needs a fair amount of coaxing to unlock profound scents of wild blueberries, warm plums, and Morello cherries, with suggestions of candied violets, aniseed, iron ore, roses, and cinnamon toast, plus a hint of crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate is already jaw-droppingly impactful, featuring bright black, blue and red fruit layers with firm, multi-dimensional tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. There's so much fruit here, but it is always in the background, beautifully restrained behind the beguiling personality of Lafleur. The blend this year is 53% Merlot and 47% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc).

99
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent, May 2022

Never the most exuberant during En Primeur, this is deep inky purple in colour with a violet rim. On the palate you get touches of iris, with an earthiness alongside, coupled with a grip of tannins that expands through the mid palate then clamps down again pretty sternly on the finish. Strong liquorice and chocolate notes, but the emphasis is clearly on slate and crushed stones, cigar box and cloves, with a strong, serious spine. I don't give 100 during En Primeur, but this is as close as it gets, and is a reflection of just how impressively the Pomerol plateau has performed in the 2019 vintage. Stainless steel vinification then 15 months ageing in barrel, 33% new oak. Drinking Window 2027 - 2050

98/100
Jane Anson, Decanter.com, June 2020

We were unable to taste the 2019 before release this year.

Farr Vintners, Farr Tasting, May 2020
Please note that these tasting notes/scores are not intended to be exhaustive and in some cases they may not be the most recently published figures. However, we always do our best to add latest scores and reviews when these come to our attention. We advise customers who wish to purchase wines based simply on critical reviews to carry out further research into the latest reports.