Chateau Lafleur, Pomerol 2016

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!

The 2016 Lafleur is an eternal, complete wine in which everything just seems to fall into place naturally. Creamy and voluptuous in the glass, with exceptional balance, the 2016 possesses superb textural intensity allied to soaring aromatics. Strong Cabernet Franc signatures give the wine brilliante and layers of saline-infused energy. Rose petal, mint, crushed flowers and dark red fruits abound, but it is the wine's total sense of completeness that is most astounding today. I have to say, 2016 came totally out of the blue, Baptiste Guinadeau commented. In 2010 and 2015 we had a pretty good idea of the kind of wines we were going to make during the growing season but in 2016 we really had no clue until harvest approached. It was only then that we started to get a sense of how the wines might turn out.

The texture of this wine is so memorable. The incredible tannins are so fine and creamy that they envelop both your mouth and your mind. The wine is full-bodied yet ethereal and balanced with incredibly energy and character. The flavors just keep on changing, from cherries and currants to truffles and earth. Some brick and terracotta, too. Fresh throughout with complete clarity. Great structure, yet creamy and light. Try after 2024.

A thrill a minute as well as one of the most singular, exotic, elegant wines in the vintage, the 2016 Château Lafleur is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot that’s only from the choice lots of estate vineyard. Brought up in one-third new French oak, this saturated ruby/purple-colored effort offers heavenly notes of raspberries, blueberries, camphor, dried flowers, and ground herbs, and it has a Grand Cru Burgundy-like complexity and elegance. Full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, ultra-pure, and seamless, it has flawless balance as well as a monster finish. Haute couture at its finest, this is a magical wine to drink over the coming 3-4 decades.

Of the three 'Pomerol Firsts', Lafleur is the most restrained, going long on rosemary, sage, truffle and toasted white pepper, oyster shell, saffron, with waves of rose and peony aromatics that are dominant over the autumnal hedgerow fruit and grilled sandalwood character. Intellectual, still not in its full drinking window, give a good five years longer in my opinion, but this is a stunning wine.

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.