Les Perrières, 2022
Les Perrieres hails from a wonderful 3 hectare site on deep limestone planted with Bouchet and Merlot massale selections from Lafleur. It is quite remarkable that the oldest vines in the blend were only planted in 2016, yet the wines they produce are already so complete and complex. Glorious aromas of cassis, eucalyptus, fine herbs, fresh cherries and minerals emerge from the glass. This clearly has a limestone DNA. Coiled, taut, focussed, this is packed with detailed fruit: juicy, perfumed, engaging, vital, sparkling with red fruits and berries. There's a strong vineyard personality developing here. The signature is the finish – the fine, linear tannins are so long and complex, laced with salt and graphite. Absolutely stunning!
critic reviews
This vintage of Les Perrières from the Guinaudeau family is a blend of equal parts Merlot and Cabernet Franc, with an élevage in one-third new oak, the other two-thirds in second-fill barrels. A freshly opened sample bottle here, unlike the other Guinaudeau wines, as the first bottle of this was corked, so I came back to this one again at the end of the visit, A very pure, crushed berry and bramble fruits, with layers of dark chocolate and toast, with time more floral, iris and violet notes. The palate is no less focused than the nose, with a fresh layer of red cherry, leathery oak and a structure of dry and tight tannins, with fresh acidity. Lovely sappy quality to the finish here, a touch juicy and mouth-watering, but with a firm grip of tannins. The alcohol is 15% on the label, the same on analysis, but unlike Grand Village this does not show so strongly.
Gorgeous limestone focus, with liquorice bud, raspberry leaf, and clear verticality just in the aromatics. Pulses of electricity, blueberry and steel, mouthwatering and salivating, finessed tannins, a ton of lift, exciting to see how this ages. A wine that begs you to geek out, and you are only too happy to do so. Harvest 9 and 22 September, vines on 3.6ha of limestone plateau (the Lafleur team now has 15ha of land there, with more planted last year so now 5.2ha planted, waiting for production in 2027). 33% new oak for ageing.
The 2022 Les Perrières has opened up considerably since I tasted it from barrel. It's quite expressive with black cherry, blueberry and violet aromas and hints of crushed stone in the background. The Cabernet Franc is perhaps more vocal than the Merlot at the moment. The palate is medium-bodied with finely sculpted tannins and an unerring sense of symmetry underpinned by the acidic thread. The finish is clean, precise and lingers in the mouth. This is stunning.
The 2022 Les Perrieres de Lafleur shows just how adapted this higher-altitude site on the plateau of Fronsac is to warmer vintages. Wafting from the glass with aromas of mulberries and raspberries, sweet spices and rose petals, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with racy acids and a taut, mineral profile. It's another brilliant effort from this visionary project.
product details
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