Château Lafleur Gazin, Pomerol, 2023
This Jean-Pierre Moueix estate is well situated between Gazin and the original plot of La Fleur Petrus. The 8.5 hectare vineyard on clay, silt and gravel soils. This 100% Merlot cuvee is rather sombre and brooding with a core of earthy mulberry fruit, gravelly cassis and liquorice. There's plenty of extract, it just feels like it needs to knit together and lighten up a bit. Maybe a bit too ambitious for its own good. We'll see.
critic reviews
The 2023 Lafleur-Gazin, 100% Merlot, is deep garnet-purple in color. It offers up a very pretty perfume of roses, kirsch, and raspberry pie followed by hints of black tea and bay leaves. The medium-bodied palate is plush and juicy, with a lively line and red berry-laced finish.
Medium plus intensity, inky plum colour, well judged density through the palate and although acidities are pretty high, they come with sappy vibrancy to the tannins, and a dash of mint leaf and blackcurrant pastille. Enjoyable. Harvest September 7 to 19.
The 2023 Lafleur-Gazin was picked September from 7 to 19. The nose shows just a little dilution compared to its peers, not unattractive but just missing a bit of depth and fruité. The palate is actually better, with quite "thick" tannins, though the oak somewhat masks a lack of fruit and grip. I wonder if the wood tannins will take control of this Pomerol? Let's see after bottling.
The Mouiex firm acquired this estate in 2021 (after cultivating it in "fermage" since 1974) and sold off the less optimally situated parcels lying on sandy soils. The 2023 Lafleur-Gazin offers up aromas of dark berries, cherries, baked plums and mint, followed by a medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered palate that's quite deep and extracted, perhaps reflecting an understandable ambition to signal new seriousness at this address. It's 100% Merlot.