Château Lafleur

Les Pensées, Pomerol, 2018

Name: Les Pensées, Pomerol
Brand: Château Lafleur
Price: 207.98 GBP

93/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

94/100

The Wine Independent

94/100

Vinous

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Last Few
2018
1x75cl
DP
£207.98

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

After the highs of Grand Village and Les Perrieres de Lafleur, we had big expectations for Pensées, and we definitely were not left disappointed. Far from it, this was a superlative Pensées, quite arguably the most profound, most detailed and most sumptuous Pensées we can recall tasting from barrel. Wonderful aromas of incense, dried flowers, griotte and fresh plum. This hails from a diagonal strip that is more clay dominant, a more typical Pomerol terroir if you like. It certainly has the opulence and decadent curvaceous texture one would expect from a top notch Pomerol. The fruit is gloriously textured, luxuriant and deep with perfumed creamy cassis fruit, very sensual with a liquid mineral quality. It's hard to recall a Pensées that is both so complex, alluring and handsome, and possesses such a noble tannic structure and detailed finish. Superb! 54% Bouchet and 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

94/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

The 2018 Pensees de Lafleur is deep garnet purple in color. It delivers notes of stewed cherries, prunes, and Christmas pudding, with wafts of anise, smoked meats, and tobacco. Full-bodied, the palate is rich and concentrated with plush tannins and soft acidity, finishing long and spicy.

drinking window 2024 - 2044

date of review 02/2023

93/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Composed of 46% Merlot and 54% Cabernet Franc, the medium to deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Pensees de Lafleur bursts with plum preserves and redcurrant jelly scents, giving way to nuances of red roses, dusty soil, bouquet garni and tapenade with a waft of black truffles. The medium to full-bodied palate is oh-so-elegant, featuring very soft tannins and beautifully knit acidity to support the generous black and red fruits, finishing long and earthy. Give it a good 3 years to spread its wings and drink it over the next 15 years or more.

drinking window 2024 - 2039

date of review 03/2021

94/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2018 Les Pensées de Lafleur is a different kettle of fish compared to the Grand Vin. In fact, it should be treated as a separate Pomerol cuvée, since even though it comes from a tongue of more clayey soil within Lafleur, the resulting wine is much more sensual and richer in style. Plush red cherries and crushed strawberry fruit feature on the nose, rose petals scents forming after a couple of hours’ opening. The palate is medium-bodied, soft in texture and approachable, displaying plenty of <em>rondeur</em>, with fine <em>mineralité</em> toward the finish and still just the faint acrid tang of a strong espresso on the aftertaste. I love this and it would not surprise me if blind, I ended up scoring it higher than the Grand Vin for the first few years.

drinking window 2023 - 2045

date of review 03/2021

product details

Specifications

Country:

Region:

Appellation:

Producer:

style:

Grape Variety:

Merlot Cabernet Franc

abv:

15%

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.