2018 Château Lafleur

The 2018 Lafleur is mesmerizing. What a wine! The aromatics alone are spellbinding. There is no need to actually taste the 2018 to know how profound it is. Silky and caressing, with phenomenal persistence, the 2018 is a total knock-out. Spice, cedar, blood orange, sage, mint, rose petal and kirsch all race out of the glass, saturating the palate with a dazzling concoction of aromas, textures and flavors. Readers lucky enough to find it should not hesitate.

- Antonio Galloni (03/2021)

So subtle and complex with blackberry, blueberry, fresh bark, fresh black truffles and light wet earth, as well as forest floor. Full-bodied, yet linear and so long with an amazingly polished and refined tannin structure and finesse that draws you deep and down in the palate. It opens incredibly in the glass. What a wine. Goes on for minutes. A real beauty. Something so true and ethereal here. Try after 2026. (01/2021)

The Grand Vin 2018 Château Lafleur from this magical terroir checks in as 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot that comes only from the more gravelly soils of the vineyard and spent 15 months in 25% new French oak. It's as good as any wine can get and has a layered, multi-dimensional style that marries power with elegance as only this estate can do. Offering notes of black raspberries, tobacco, truffly earth, spring flowers, and chocolate, it's full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, but nevertheless is as weightless as they come, offering this "je ne sais quoi" character that's hard to describe. It's more backward and reserved than the Pensées and is going to take a decade of bottle age to hit maturity, but it's a desert Island wine if there ever was one. (03/2021)

Lafleur 2018 is deep garnet purple in color. It is a little broody to begin, giving way to notes of sauteed herbs, damp soil, and truffles, over a core of baked plums, blackberry preserves, and cedar, with a waft of olives. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm and grainy, quite muscular, locked up tight, with a long and earthy finish. It needs time! (02/2023)

The 2018 Lafleur is a blend of 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the nose absolutely shuts down upon first pour. After a lot of air, it slowly unfurls to reveal alluring scents of fresh black cherries, ripe blackberries and redcurrant jelly, leading to suggestions of sandalwood, pencil shavings, lilacs and forest floor, with emerging, heady wafts of camphor, iron ore and Indian spices. The rich, full-bodied palate is equally slow to read, offering whispers and murmurs of earth and exotic spice-laced black fruits with glimpses at a fleeting floral undercurrent, framed by firm, finely grained tannins and beautifully knit freshness, finishing with an edifying perfume. This is liquid poetry, but I would touch it for 7-8 years, at least. Should you be around in 40 years' time, expect it to blow your mind.

- Lisa Perrotti-Brown (03/2021)