Château Lafleur

Château Lafleur, Pomerol, 2016

Name: Château Lafleur, Pomerol
Brand: Château Lafleur
Price: 2951.56 GBP

100/100

The Wine Independent

98/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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delivery

in bond

Broking

2016
3x75cl
DP
£2,951.56

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

The Guineaudeaus describe the 2016 growing season as 'a three step waltz'; the wet spring, the 'brutal' drought and the 'moderate' autumn. It makes it all sound so easy, but the reality was less serene. The 2016 range is amongst the very best we have ever tasted, but this came at a huge cost and much sacrifice. This is a masterful range, headed by the otherworldly Lafleur. Produced from 45% Merlot and 55% Cabernet Franc, we wondered whether this was the perfect Lafleur. Certainly, Julie and the Guinaudeau team poured their hearts and souls into making this wine. Utterly regal, this has such aromatic complexity, graceful notes of sandalwood, a plethora of fruits including: Morello cherry, Olallieberry, Alpine strawberry, crème de cassis and lingonberry. A kaleidoscopic flavour profile keeps teasing the palate with engaging fruits and deep minerals. This a masterful Lafleur, possibly the best we have ever tasted; certainly the most graceful and ethereal Lafleur of recent years with a precision and pitch that is faultless. Intense, charming and powerful, yet vital, bright and effortless, this is a quite staggering Lafleur. It is worth noting that we re-visited Lafleur after we had tasted the Champs Libres (not something one would normally recommend), and we found it to still be singing. There is such persistence and underlying power, allied with a low pH; a winning combination!

delivery information

GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

100/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

Lafleur 2016 is 45% Merlot and 55% Cabernet Franc giving a deep garnet color, with a touch of purple. It storms out of the glass with profound scents of plum preserves, dark chocolate, black cherry compote, and cast iron pan, leading to fragrant hints of mossy tree bark and lilacs. Full-bodied, the palate is so multi-layered and intense it is mind-blowing, delivering densely packed layers of black fruits, exotic spices and earthy elements, framed by super-firm, grained tannins and perfectly knit freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. WOW what a wine!

drinking window 2024 - 2054

date of review 12/2022

98/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2016 Lafleur has a perfumed, floral bouquet of red cherries, raspberry, rose petals and incense, almost Burgundian in personality. Understated compared to its peers, but utterly graceful. The lightly spiced palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins, revealing plenty of brown spice and cedar notes toward what feels like an almost Left Bank finish. Before its identity was revealed, I speculated that it might be Figeac! Not a million miles away, and in any case, this is outstanding. Tasted blind at the annual Southwold tasting.

drinking window 2030 - 2080

date of review 08/2020

product details

Specifications

Country:

Region:

Appellation:

Producer:

style:

Grape Variety:

Merlot Cabernet Franc

abv:

13.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.