Château Lafleur

Château Lafleur, Pomerol, 2018

Name: Château Lafleur, Pomerol
Brand: Château Lafleur
Price: 4001.95 GBP

98/100

Inside Bordeaux

98/100

The Wine Independent

97/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

delivery

in bond

portfolio

2018
3x75cl
DP
£4,001.95

Broking

2018
3x75cl
DP
£2,351.95
2018
3x75cl
DP
£2,705.95

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

The Guinaudeau's flagship wine is a monumental, grandiose effort. Is it as good as the ethereal 2016? Well time will tell. It's character at this stage is rather different. Whilst the 2016 was suave and elegant, the 2018 is brooding and imposing. This is more massive, but no less wonderful. It shares the same DNA as the 2016 with its detail, precision, tension and exceptional tannic structure. Baptiste and Omri are firm believers that it is the quality of tannins that makes the difference between good and greatness. This was clearly evident when tasting the 2018s. Lafleur, Cheval Blanc, Haut Brion, Montrose, to name but a few, have tannins that tantalise the taste buds, possess the 'haunting finish' that separates the élite from the crowd. We could talk tannins for a long time, but there are other aspects of this wine that also deserve a mention. The bouquet is regal: mineral infused cassis, fine herbs, flowers, stones and detailed red berries. There is wonderful delineation on the palate; refined, intense fruit cascades over the palate, graphite and ferrous notes, waves of fruit, real density and concentration, yet there is nothing cumbersome or heavy, it flows, there's a real suppleness and class to the salty cherry fruit, violet scented cassis and cocoa nib flavours. We now must talk more about the tannins. They are seductive yet possess real gravitas. There's a salinity and freshness that makes the mouth water - these are refreshing, vibrant tannins, laced with minerals and fruit. At this moment it resembles a more massive version on the 2016, with the same level of refinement and class. It is clearly one of the standout wines of the vintage. It'll be fascinating to chart its progress for the rest of our lives... 54% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), 46% Merlot.

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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

98/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

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!

drinking window 2027 - 2067

date of review 02/2023

98/100

Jane Anson,

Inside Bordeaux

Always a wine that requires time in bottle, and the 2018 is extremely closed down at three years old. Cabernet Franc dominates in expression, with layers of cool blueberry and blackcurrant fruits, needing a good 30 minutes in the glass to begin to open up and let out the raspberry leaf, peony floral notes. Packed in among the fine tannins are fennel, soy, smoked earth and slate, and this is a stunning Lafleur, from those carefully, thoughfully tended 4.5ha of vines. 25% new oak.

drinking window 2023 - 2038

date of review 10/2021

97/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The first thing to say about the 2018 Lafleur is that it is completely different from the Les Pensées and in fact is more similar to Guinaudeau’s Les Perrières, which is unsurprising given that both come from stony soils (limestone there, gravel here) whereas Les Pensées comes from more clayey soils. This has a very refined bouquet, the blue fruit that I picked up from barrel receding to make way for more red fruit, cranberry and even touches of pomegranate. Monitoring this half-bottle over 24 hours, the Pomerol traits of black truffle and a faint scent of morels gradually emerge. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins that frame the red berry fruit. The Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), which comprises 54% of the blend, imparts a wonderful peppery note that lingers 45 seconds after the wine has exited, the tongue tingling long after it says goodbye. At just under 15% alcohol, one might expect a little warmth on the finish, but it is not detectable. A superb Lafleur, albeit one that will demand several years’ cellaring.

drinking window 2026 - 2060

date of review 03/2021

product details

Specifications

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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.