My colleagues and I were finally able to organize a mini Lafleur vertical last night (an old dream that was very, very difficult to bring together) to redefine the odds against the fabulous 2022 vintage. Once again, we can't put 100 points everywhere.
TOP SHELF WINE WEEKEND: Even on the first glass from a pop-n-pour (cuz you have to get after it early on this wine, otherwise it’ll be drained in the blink of an eye amongst this eager group of wine mongers), the 2018 Lafleur showcases top tier purity from the first sip. Primary and linear initially, with blackberry seed and unripe black cherry sprinting past the mid-palate, finishing with a floral-meets-mineral tail, this bottle of Lafleur doesn’t waste much time before settling into a groove that is pretty much like riding the best rollercoaster of all time – but one that is like a polished Japanese bullet train and not some clanky Coney Island coaster with sticky handrails. If you prefer to carve out 10 minutes of your day solely for reading my previous note on this wine in November 2021, you’ll find all the hacked wine wordsmithing you’d ever want. My sentiments haven’t changed much since then.
I clutched on to a glass of this for over an hour waiting for something to happen…and it did. As it gobbles up oxygen like a hippo at a Hardee’s, my beloved Lafleur Cinderellas its way into the polished Pomerol puma that I’ve come to admire. An electric charge of super classy red, purple, and black fruits (think freshly washed mixed berries under a strobe light) mingle with chiseled mineral and forest floor notes (but as if someone had swept the “floor” so clean that all that is left is a whisper of the earth element).
Though it’s easy to forecast even more greatness with this wine (if that’s possible) after perhaps a decade or so more in the bottle, I almost hate to give up ground here early when it’s so remarkable in its current state with a bit of air. Tragically, the bottle was empty before I’m sure it could reach even higher on the awesome-ladder. 98-100 points. For my palate, this is really what I consider one of the classiest and coolest bottles of wine out there.
Next to the 2004 and 2012 Lafleur, the 2018 is…well…it’s kinda just not fair…
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Best of the World Wine Night (ex-Italy) (The csimm_M Estate): Wow, just wow. When I read friend csimm’s TN for this wine, which I’d not even heard of previously, a bit under 2 years ago, I became intensely curious about it. Not so much so that my wine spend, still relatively new to the land of Colgins and Abreus, was going to jump several ladder rungs to actually purchase it (see bottom of the TN), but such that I fervently but silently hoped that if might show up at a tasting I cadged an invite to via the kindness of others, and all praises to Dionysus, this did today. Seeing this, unexpected as it wasn’t listed on the last version of the carte I checked, I tried, no doubt unsuccessfully, to keep my cool and not appear overeager, even if, getting there close to on time, it was already significantly dented. I think that this was the first thing I tasted, even before the dream ‘01 Harlan, but if it wasn’t, it was damned close, so my palate was as sharp as a knife fresh off the strop.
Well, leaving aside the economics, if you love wine, you breathe wine, you feel wine, this is, simply, a must taste experience. All manner of dark berries and black currants mingle and intertwine with the most splendid and formidable, but never impenetrable, dark notes of graphite, asphalt, lava (yep, Taurasi lovers, you can get lava outside of Campania), along with ground and forest spice and dark florals medium bodied yet profoundly deep, persistent and complex, the true fist in the velvet glove. And yeah, the nose doesn’t suck, either. I don’t know what the prep was for Marvin, whom I didn’t know brought this—I’d assumed it was our host—until just reading IRBDW’s TN, but he got this to an extraordinary place, and while my score reflects that this *could* improve, I have to admit that it’s not readily apparent to me how. The best young BDX I’ve had by far, and the best BDX, full stop, alongside the ‘00 Latour (and the best young wine alongside fellow guest Alex’s ‘19 Cab), and right there with the aforementioned wines, the day’s ‘01 Harlan and very few others atop the all-time favorite list. I’d have loved to have revisited this closer to the end of the tasting, but it was long gone, or tried pairing it, but at this point, these would have seemed more to be for purposes of variation, not improvement. Although I’m a huge fan of bottle aging higher end BDX varietals and blends (if anything, those from the mothership and the Land of the Boot even more than the local hooch), this wine today, when put up against its sib from ‘04, is a powerful buttress to csimm’s argument that youth is sometimes served over age, and by an overwhelming margin at that. This could ball up at some point and become undrinkable until I’m off the planet, but with that happening or steady drinkability, this should easily be thriving a couple of decades out, maybe more. Extraordinary. Easy 99-100+
A word here without getting too mushy, I hope. One of the things that’s moved me deeply in the online to offline CT community the past few years has been the unbridled generosity of many of the participants. I’ve watched my wine spend steadily inch up to the realm of Colgins and Abreus (alas, as I commented to one of the other guests, once you get seriously on the wine ladder, it’s unidirectional [up] unless you die or are overtaken by alcoholism), I see no scenario where it gets to this point, but I’m so taken with the kindness of others whose spend has and willingly and selflessly share it, even among those they know only casually. If I’d brought this, I’d probably have hung around the tasting island asking everyone, “Did you like that? See, I brought it!”, yet I had no sense of this from Marvin. So, thank you, my friend, for bringing one of the wines of my life.
Memorial Madness at Case de Chris y Melissa - Day 2 of 2: Needed about an hour of air. Kept getting better in glass. The mid palate was to die for, gliding over my palate like rain on a windshield just treated with rainX. Still a big wine and will need some time to resolve itself. I couldn't get over how weightless on the palate. Long finish. This would have ranked 2nd in the lineup if this were to have been compared to Day 1, behind the 19 Cheval Blanc. 98+++
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Wild and Crazy Memorial Weekend - Sunday (Chris' Castle aka Melissa's Manor): OK....so for those who know me or have followed me on CT, you know I have been less than enchanted by Lafleur....I have opened 5 bottles from various vintages and had a couple others people have opened for me...through all that, I have never has a great bottle! The day before this tasting, I had the privilege of tasting a 2004 and 2012 Lafleur, and neither of those changed my mind! In fact, I told a good friend, Marvin, who wanted to bring this bottle to the tasting that he should save it because it is too young. However, with my compounded horrible experiences with Lafleur, like a bad dream you cannot wake up from, I told him to bring it to this tasting. If I was not impressed, I was selling the few bottles of Lafleur I have left and chalking it up to this wine just not being in my wheelhouse! So he brought it!
2018 Lafleur - Now THIS is what I always expected from Lafleur! A great wine that not only tastes great now, but actually shows off its potential to get even better! I would fully expect this wine to hit three digits with some cellar time (at least 7-10 years). Full of black and red fruit, with plenty of graphite, bramble, chocolate and forest floor. This is sumptuous now, but no doubt will be even better later! 97 points and a big thank you to Marvin for restoring my faith in Lafleur!
As a side note, I think the fruit may fade faster with this wine than other wines, so I will likely drink them between 10 and 15 years old.
Flavors of dark and intense black fruits with a shade of blue, black graphite and pristine earth.
I know I didn't say much but I don't think it's needed. If intensely dark, pure fruits took form of a haunting apparition with a pure soul, it's this. I'm in awe of how intense and pure everything is while maintaining such elegance with clean precision. This required some time to open up for me and I should've given it even more time and air to see how it develops, but what it showed me for now is that this thing can be so good. Wanted to go back for seconds but couldn't even find the bottle. 98+
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Obligé de baisser la note. Le vin est toujours aussi fantastique mais comme il n'est pas tout à fait au niveau du gigantesque 2019 auquel je ne peux pas donner 101 ou 102 points sur 100....Pas le choix!
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Halloween in the Vice Versa Cave: The best young wine I’ve had from across the Atlantic and the absolute show-stopper of the night. The concentration, sophistication, and complexity, even at such an infant stage, are so compelling and palate-grabbing that the dark fruit literally arrests every other sense and forces one to be completely enveloped in the Lafleur’s mesmerizing dose of black and blue berries, graphite, charcoal, black ink, fresh soil, bitter chocolate, peony, and molten lava Kīlauea-meets-Netherlands black licorice obsidian notes. At 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot, it is a tower of power that is effortlessly balanced and focused. The chiseled frame does everything with exacting resolve to fashion the total physique of this wine so that its fruit core and tannic edging become one. It’s juicy and all at once a tight drum that strikes perfectly with every beat of the stick, finishing defined and sustained.
What happens with air you ask? Well, heck my friend, it makes ya even happier than peeling a whole Cuties clementine in one bust of the skin. It’s just so persistent and thrilling, with more gloss than a pro bowler and his favorite oiled-up ball. The mediaeval gravel component is dark and wet, but also uber-polished. The Lafleur is the 1% of the goth crowd who actually turned out cool and managed to jet off to Paris Fashion Week, hit the runway, and then hang out in Morocco for a week just to work on the perfect tan, being mindful not to dull the foot-long tattoo of Jack Skellington on her shoulder.
Between the 2018 Lafleur and the 2018 Bryant (one of the best Napa wines I’ve ever had), the “Quasi-War” between the Frenchie Armée de Camembert and the Yankee Cheddarhead Cowboys was a straight draw. “And YOU get a hundred; and YOU get a hundred….” The Lafleur was slightly chewier than the 2018 Ausone served next to it, with the Ausone finishing considerably drier than its Pomerol competitor. In fact, when a wine crushes the company of Ausone, Abreu, Pomontory, Lokoya, Pavie, etc, etc all in one sitting, it’s time to call K&L and sell your cellar just so you can afford a couple bottles of this magical juice.
To the yacht and island owners, venture capitalists, sultans and princes, financiers, popes, and all the things I will never be, I say to you fine people: Buy the Lafleur. Buy a lot of it. Cram your bathtub full of it and swim in the spoils of the best grape juice on the planet. To a peasant like me, this is a wine that is an experience, not just something to pour down your jughole. If I had another bottle, I’d treat it like the princess it is, nuzzling up to it next to a warm fireplace, reading it poetry all night, playing with its locks of hair into the wee hours as we giggle and reminisce about times begone. (What…? Oh, sorry. It just got weird didn’t it… Anyway…)
100,000 points for now, with potential to reach infinity to the second power after a decade of cellaring, though realistically, I don’t know that you need to wait until your kids get married and then get divorced before tearing into these. Epic wine.
This could be the wine of the vintage! Profound in every sense, the wine smells like you walked into a flower shop carrying a bushel of just picked red and black pit fruits and berries and your pockets were filled with an array of spices, herbs, cocoa, spearmint and thyme. If that didn't seal the deal, the breathtaking purity in the fruit along with the non-stop layers of sweet, vivacious red fruits with their silky, sexy, erotic textures will. The seamless finish does not seem to quit. The wine blends 54% Cabernet Franc with 46% Merlot.
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Great depth on this wine which, already in the nose - and even if in tasting Primeurs, it is a relative criterion - is distinguished by its originality and its depth. Impressive body, medullary, flared, which develops in the mouth in a continuous, rhythmic way, and ends in a form of apotheosis on a very long finish, which seems almost infinite. Not only the best ever, but also the greatest wine I've ever tasted in Primeur. Is it possible to note 105 points?
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Bordeaux 2018 from barrel: some selections (Bordeaux): Take note that Lafleur cellar master Omri Ram called Cheval Blanc “one of the best wines of the vintage”. But his Lafleur should make any top wine list from 2018 barrel tastings. Lots of hot gravel soils with a bit of clay could make you think that the wine may have been “hotter” in expression, too, but the nose is noble and conveys elegance, iodine, and complexity. Intensity and power, too, yet poised and even tightly knit. I sensed just a touch of warmth on the finish, but just vaguely. What reassures are the fresh, crushed mint aspects to the finish, with good acidity to balance the 14.5% alcohol. In technical terms a pH closer to 3.6, which is lower than many Bordeaux in 2018). A brilliant wine where the Cabernet Franc (54% of the blend) is so fresh and refined. 97-100
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Let's get this out of the way from the start: No risk, no fun. Right? This is the wine of the vintage! There, I said it. Now, let me explain why... On the palate, you encounter serious levels of weight and density. However, before you get there you're greeted with scintillating truffle, licorice, plum, cherry liqueur, smoke and earthy aromatics. Clearly the wine is powerful, fresh and exotic with its mélange of incredibly ripe, red and black cherry fruits. Voluptuous and mouth-filling, the wine covers your palate with fleshy plums that remain a presence for close to 60 seconds. The purity in the fruit is crazy good. There is no doubt this is one of the great vintages of Lafleur. Could it be the best ever? Time will tell -- lots of time as it will take at least 15 years before you should even consider popping a cork. Lafleur is never a wine to drink young; it takes time to show its essence. This very special wine was produced from a blend of 54% Cabernet Franc, 46% Merlot, reaching 14.5% with a pH of 3.65. The Merlot was harvested From September 12 to October 4. 98-100 Pts
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Geproefd op Château Lafleur op vrijdag 05.04.2019. 4,5 hectare sandy-gravel soil en clay-gravel soil. Gravel is de dominante bodemsoort. Neus vergelijkbaar met 2018 Le Pin, maar wellicht iets meer gesloten. Volle attaque, Wat een lengte! Heel compleet. 98-100!
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2/7/2024 - fcxj wrote: 92 Points
Tight!
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9/30/2023 - watcheslover Likes this wine: 99 Points
My colleagues and I were finally able to organize a mini Lafleur vertical last night (an old dream that was very, very difficult to bring together) to redefine the odds against the fabulous 2022 vintage. Once again, we can't put 100 points everywhere.
1) 2019 - 2022 (sample) 100/100
3) 2020 99-100/100
4) 2018 99/100
5) 2016 - 2021 (sample) 98-99/100
7) 2015 98/100
8) 2012 -2017 97/100
10) 2014 96-97/100
11) 2013 94/100
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6/6/2023 - csimm wrote: 100 Points
TOP SHELF WINE WEEKEND: Even on the first glass from a pop-n-pour (cuz you have to get after it early on this wine, otherwise it’ll be drained in the blink of an eye amongst this eager group of wine mongers), the 2018 Lafleur showcases top tier purity from the first sip. Primary and linear initially, with blackberry seed and unripe black cherry sprinting past the mid-palate, finishing with a floral-meets-mineral tail, this bottle of Lafleur doesn’t waste much time before settling into a groove that is pretty much like riding the best rollercoaster of all time – but one that is like a polished Japanese bullet train and not some clanky Coney Island coaster with sticky handrails. If you prefer to carve out 10 minutes of your day solely for reading my previous note on this wine in November 2021, you’ll find all the hacked wine wordsmithing you’d ever want. My sentiments haven’t changed much since then.
I clutched on to a glass of this for over an hour waiting for something to happen…and it did. As it gobbles up oxygen like a hippo at a Hardee’s, my beloved Lafleur Cinderellas its way into the polished Pomerol puma that I’ve come to admire. An electric charge of super classy red, purple, and black fruits (think freshly washed mixed berries under a strobe light) mingle with chiseled mineral and forest floor notes (but as if someone had swept the “floor” so clean that all that is left is a whisper of the earth element).
Though it’s easy to forecast even more greatness with this wine (if that’s possible) after perhaps a decade or so more in the bottle, I almost hate to give up ground here early when it’s so remarkable in its current state with a bit of air. Tragically, the bottle was empty before I’m sure it could reach even higher on the awesome-ladder. 98-100 points. For my palate, this is really what I consider one of the classiest and coolest bottles of wine out there.
Next to the 2004 and 2012 Lafleur, the 2018 is…well…it’s kinda just not fair…
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5/28/2023 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 100 Points
Best of the World Wine Night (ex-Italy) (The csimm_M Estate): Wow, just wow. When I read friend csimm’s TN for this wine, which I’d not even heard of previously, a bit under 2 years ago, I became intensely curious about it. Not so much so that my wine spend, still relatively new to the land of Colgins and Abreus, was going to jump several ladder rungs to actually purchase it (see bottom of the TN), but such that I fervently but silently hoped that if might show up at a tasting I cadged an invite to via the kindness of others, and all praises to Dionysus, this did today. Seeing this, unexpected as it wasn’t listed on the last version of the carte I checked, I tried, no doubt unsuccessfully, to keep my cool and not appear overeager, even if, getting there close to on time, it was already significantly dented. I think that this was the first thing I tasted, even before the dream ‘01 Harlan, but if it wasn’t, it was damned close, so my palate was as sharp as a knife fresh off the strop.
Well, leaving aside the economics, if you love wine, you breathe wine, you feel wine, this is, simply, a must taste experience. All manner of dark berries and black currants mingle and intertwine with the most splendid and formidable, but never impenetrable, dark notes of graphite, asphalt, lava (yep, Taurasi lovers, you can get lava outside of Campania), along with ground and forest spice and dark florals medium bodied yet profoundly deep, persistent and complex, the true fist in the velvet glove. And yeah, the nose doesn’t suck, either. I don’t know what the prep was for Marvin, whom I didn’t know brought this—I’d assumed it was our host—until just reading IRBDW’s TN, but he got this to an extraordinary place, and while my score reflects that this *could* improve, I have to admit that it’s not readily apparent to me how. The best young BDX I’ve had by far, and the best BDX, full stop, alongside the ‘00 Latour (and the best young wine alongside fellow guest Alex’s ‘19 Cab), and right there with the aforementioned wines, the day’s ‘01 Harlan and very few others atop the all-time favorite list. I’d have loved to have revisited this closer to the end of the tasting, but it was long gone, or tried pairing it, but at this point, these would have seemed more to be for purposes of variation, not improvement. Although I’m a huge fan of bottle aging higher end BDX varietals and blends (if anything, those from the mothership and the Land of the Boot even more than the local hooch), this wine today, when put up against its sib from ‘04, is a powerful buttress to csimm’s argument that youth is sometimes served over age, and by an overwhelming margin at that. This could ball up at some point and become undrinkable until I’m off the planet, but with that happening or steady drinkability, this should easily be thriving a couple of decades out, maybe more. Extraordinary. Easy 99-100+
A word here without getting too mushy, I hope. One of the things that’s moved me deeply in the online to offline CT community the past few years has been the unbridled generosity of many of the participants. I’ve watched my wine spend steadily inch up to the realm of Colgins and Abreus (alas, as I commented to one of the other guests, once you get seriously on the wine ladder, it’s unidirectional [up] unless you die or are overtaken by alcoholism), I see no scenario where it gets to this point, but I’m so taken with the kindness of others whose spend has and willingly and selflessly share it, even among those they know only casually. If I’d brought this, I’d probably have hung around the tasting island asking everyone, “Did you like that? See, I brought it!”, yet I had no sense of this from Marvin. So, thank you, my friend, for bringing one of the wines of my life.
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5/28/2023 - bsumoba Likes this wine: 98 Points
Memorial Madness at Case de Chris y Melissa - Day 2 of 2: Needed about an hour of air. Kept getting better in glass. The mid palate was to die for, gliding over my palate like rain on a windshield just treated with rainX. Still a big wine and will need some time to resolve itself. I couldn't get over how weightless on the palate. Long finish. This would have ranked 2nd in the lineup if this were to have been compared to Day 1, behind the 19 Cheval Blanc. 98+++
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5/28/2023 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 97 Points
Wild and Crazy Memorial Weekend - Sunday (Chris' Castle aka Melissa's Manor): OK....so for those who know me or have followed me on CT, you know I have been less than enchanted by Lafleur....I have opened 5 bottles from various vintages and had a couple others people have opened for me...through all that, I have never has a great bottle! The day before this tasting, I had the privilege of tasting a 2004 and 2012 Lafleur, and neither of those changed my mind! In fact, I told a good friend, Marvin, who wanted to bring this bottle to the tasting that he should save it because it is too young. However, with my compounded horrible experiences with Lafleur, like a bad dream you cannot wake up from, I told him to bring it to this tasting. If I was not impressed, I was selling the few bottles of Lafleur I have left and chalking it up to this wine just not being in my wheelhouse! So he brought it!
2018 Lafleur - Now THIS is what I always expected from Lafleur! A great wine that not only tastes great now, but actually shows off its potential to get even better! I would fully expect this wine to hit three digits with some cellar time (at least 7-10 years). Full of black and red fruit, with plenty of graphite, bramble, chocolate and forest floor. This is sumptuous now, but no doubt will be even better later! 97 points and a big thank you to Marvin for restoring my faith in Lafleur!
As a side note, I think the fruit may fade faster with this wine than other wines, so I will likely drink them between 10 and 15 years old.
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5/28/2023 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 98 Points
Memorial Day Weekend, Day 2: The Great Gatsby: Initially somewhat closed on the nose but with time, intense yet elegant dark floral notes with black and dark red fruits.
Flavors of dark and intense black fruits with a shade of blue, black graphite and pristine earth.
I know I didn't say much but I don't think it's needed. If intensely dark, pure fruits took form of a haunting apparition with a pure soul, it's this. I'm in awe of how intense and pure everything is while maintaining such elegance with clean precision. This required some time to open up for me and I should've given it even more time and air to see how it develops, but what it showed me for now is that this thing can be so good. Wanted to go back for seconds but couldn't even find the bottle. 98+
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6/29/2022 - Ramonee Confit Likes this wine: 98 Points
Obligé de baisser la note. Le vin est toujours aussi fantastique mais comme il n'est pas tout à fait au niveau du gigantesque 2019 auquel je ne peux pas donner 101 ou 102 points sur 100....Pas le choix!
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11/9/2021 - csimm wrote: 100 Points
Halloween in the Vice Versa Cave: The best young wine I’ve had from across the Atlantic and the absolute show-stopper of the night. The concentration, sophistication, and complexity, even at such an infant stage, are so compelling and palate-grabbing that the dark fruit literally arrests every other sense and forces one to be completely enveloped in the Lafleur’s mesmerizing dose of black and blue berries, graphite, charcoal, black ink, fresh soil, bitter chocolate, peony, and molten lava Kīlauea-meets-Netherlands black licorice obsidian notes. At 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot, it is a tower of power that is effortlessly balanced and focused. The chiseled frame does everything with exacting resolve to fashion the total physique of this wine so that its fruit core and tannic edging become one. It’s juicy and all at once a tight drum that strikes perfectly with every beat of the stick, finishing defined and sustained.
What happens with air you ask? Well, heck my friend, it makes ya even happier than peeling a whole Cuties clementine in one bust of the skin. It’s just so persistent and thrilling, with more gloss than a pro bowler and his favorite oiled-up ball. The mediaeval gravel component is dark and wet, but also uber-polished. The Lafleur is the 1% of the goth crowd who actually turned out cool and managed to jet off to Paris Fashion Week, hit the runway, and then hang out in Morocco for a week just to work on the perfect tan, being mindful not to dull the foot-long tattoo of Jack Skellington on her shoulder.
Between the 2018 Lafleur and the 2018 Bryant (one of the best Napa wines I’ve ever had), the “Quasi-War” between the Frenchie Armée de Camembert and the Yankee Cheddarhead Cowboys was a straight draw. “And YOU get a hundred; and YOU get a hundred….” The Lafleur was slightly chewier than the 2018 Ausone served next to it, with the Ausone finishing considerably drier than its Pomerol competitor. In fact, when a wine crushes the company of Ausone, Abreu, Pomontory, Lokoya, Pavie, etc, etc all in one sitting, it’s time to call K&L and sell your cellar just so you can afford a couple bottles of this magical juice.
To the yacht and island owners, venture capitalists, sultans and princes, financiers, popes, and all the things I will never be, I say to you fine people: Buy the Lafleur. Buy a lot of it. Cram your bathtub full of it and swim in the spoils of the best grape juice on the planet. To a peasant like me, this is a wine that is an experience, not just something to pour down your jughole. If I had another bottle, I’d treat it like the princess it is, nuzzling up to it next to a warm fireplace, reading it poetry all night, playing with its locks of hair into the wee hours as we giggle and reminisce about times begone. (What…? Oh, sorry. It just got weird didn’t it… Anyway…)
100,000 points for now, with potential to reach infinity to the second power after a decade of cellaring, though realistically, I don’t know that you need to wait until your kids get married and then get divorced before tearing into these. Epic wine.
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3/9/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 100 Points
This could be the wine of the vintage! Profound in every sense, the wine smells like you walked into a flower shop carrying a bushel of just picked red and black pit fruits and berries and your pockets were filled with an array of spices, herbs, cocoa, spearmint and thyme. If that didn't seal the deal, the breathtaking purity in the fruit along with the non-stop layers of sweet, vivacious red fruits with their silky, sexy, erotic textures will. The seamless finish does not seem to quit. The wine blends 54% Cabernet Franc with 46% Merlot.
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6/9/2019 - watcheslover Likes this wine: 100 Points
Great depth on this wine which, already in the nose - and even if in tasting Primeurs, it is a relative criterion - is distinguished by its originality and its depth. Impressive body, medullary, flared, which develops in the mouth in a continuous, rhythmic way, and ends in a form of apotheosis on a very long finish, which seems almost infinite.
Not only the best ever, but also the greatest wine I've ever tasted in Primeur. Is it possible to note 105 points?
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5/23/2019 - Ramonee Confit wrote: 100 Points
Le meilleur jamais fait depuis les années 1950
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5/10/2019 - PanosKakaviatos Likes this wine:
Bordeaux 2018 from barrel: some selections (Bordeaux): Take note that Lafleur cellar master Omri Ram called Cheval Blanc “one of the best wines of the vintage”. But his Lafleur should make any top wine list from 2018 barrel tastings. Lots of hot gravel soils with a bit of clay could make you think that the wine may have been “hotter” in expression, too, but the nose is noble and conveys elegance, iodine, and complexity. Intensity and power, too, yet poised and even tightly knit. I sensed just a touch of warmth on the finish, but just vaguely. What reassures are the fresh, crushed mint aspects to the finish, with good acidity to balance the 14.5% alcohol. In technical terms a pH closer to 3.6, which is lower than many Bordeaux in 2018). A brilliant wine where the Cabernet Franc (54% of the blend) is so fresh and refined. 97-100
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4/19/2019 - Jeff Leve wrote: 99 Points
Let's get this out of the way from the start: No risk, no fun. Right? This is the wine of the vintage! There, I said it. Now, let me explain why... On the palate, you encounter serious levels of weight and density. However, before you get there you're greeted with scintillating truffle, licorice, plum, cherry liqueur, smoke and earthy aromatics. Clearly the wine is powerful, fresh and exotic with its mélange of incredibly ripe, red and black cherry fruits. Voluptuous and mouth-filling, the wine covers your palate with fleshy plums that remain a presence for close to 60 seconds. The purity in the fruit is crazy good. There is no doubt this is one of the great vintages of Lafleur. Could it be the best ever? Time will tell -- lots of time as it will take at least 15 years before you should even consider popping a cork. Lafleur is never a wine to drink young; it takes time to show its essence. This very special wine was produced from a blend of 54% Cabernet Franc, 46% Merlot, reaching 14.5% with a pH of 3.65. The Merlot was harvested From September 12 to October 4. 98-100 Pts
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4/5/2019 - dvansteenderen Likes this wine: 99 Points
Geproefd op Château Lafleur op vrijdag 05.04.2019.
4,5 hectare sandy-gravel soil en clay-gravel soil. Gravel is de dominante bodemsoort. Neus vergelijkbaar met 2018 Le Pin, maar wellicht iets meer gesloten. Volle attaque, Wat een lengte! Heel compleet. 98-100!
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