Château Lafleur, Pomerol, 2013

Tasting Note:

As one might expect, the Grand Vin is quite a step up and is a contender for our 'wine of the vintage'. Produced from 45% Merlot and 55% Cabernet Franc, from the same 4.5 hectare plot purchased by Jacques' great-great grandfather in 1872. A spectacular bouquet of black fruit gums, cassis, fine herbs, coal, crushed rocks and liqueur chocolates. This is brooding, complex and intellectual, but not without a healthy dose of joy. There is a fleshiness to the mid palate, it's not corpulent, but it is generous and richly layered as well as being taut, focussed and muscular. It may not be as profound as say the 2010, but it is nonetheless a spectacular, rather more open style of Lafleur that will no doubt be an absolute pleasure to drink in a decade. Philosophical and hedonistic in one - a truly great wine.