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2018 Château Lafleur, 3-bottle Lot, Wood Case

Removed from a professional wine storage facility; Purchased at auction

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2018 Château Lafleur

750ml

RATINGS

100James Suckling

So subtle and complex with blackberry, blueberry, fresh bark, fresh black truffles and light wet earth, as well as forest floor. Full-bodied, yet linear and so long with an amazingly polished and refined tannin structure and finesse that draws you deep and down in the palate. It opens incredibly in the glass. What a wine. Goes on for minutes. A real beauty. Something so true and ethereal here.

100Jeb Dunnuck

...layered, multi-dimensional style that marries power with elegance... Offering notes of black raspberries, tobacco, truffly earth, spring flowers, and chocolate...full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, but nevertheless is as weightless as they come...

98+ The Wine Advocate

...alluring scents of fresh black cherries, ripe blackberries and redcurrant jelly, leading to suggestions of sandalwood, pencil shavings, lilacs and forest floor, with emerging, heady wafts of camphor, iron ore and Indian spices...rich, full-bodied palate...offering whispers and murmurs of earth and exotic spice-laced black fruits with glimpses at a fleeting floral undercurrent, framed by firm, finely grained tannins and beautifully knit freshness, finishing with an edifying perfume.

97Vinous / IWC

...very refined bouquet...red fruit, cranberry and even touches of pomegranate...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...wonderful peppery note that lingers 45 seconds after the wine has exited, the tongue tingling long after it says goodbye.

19Jancis Robinson

Spicy and sweet and exotic. Difficult to spit. Real energy... Long and with great layers and excitement. Hint of tarriness.

PRODUCER

Château Lafleur

Located in the shadow of the famous Château Petrus estate, tiny Château Lafleur with its 11 acres of Pomerol vineyards was for much of its history known only to the most knowledgeable Bordeaux connoisseurs. Like most wine estates in France it was a family business for several centuries, and in the 1940s it was inherited by two sisters, Therese and Marie Robin, who never married or had children. The sisters quietly ran the estate until their deaths, often making outstanding wine. Since 1985 the estate has been run by Sylvie and Jacques Guinaudeau, niece and nephew to the Robin sisters. The pair has modernized winemaking using new oak casks for some vintages. Most critics agree that one key to the quality of the wine is the vineyard’s terroir, which benefits from deposits of phosphorus and potassium. Vineyards are planted to 50% Cabernet France and 50% Merlot, and the average vine is 30 years old. About 12,000 bottles of Château Lafleur are produced annually.

REGION

France, Bordeaux, Pomerol

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux’s red wine producing regions, with only about 2,000 acres of vineyards. Located on the east side of the Dordogne River, it is one of the so-called “right bank” appellations and therefore planted primarily to Merlot. Pomerol is unique in Bordeaux in that it is the only district never to have been rated in a classification system. Some historians think Pomerol’s location on the right bank made it unattractive to Bordeaux-based wine traders, who had plenty of wine from Medoc and Graves to export to England and northern Europe. Since ranking estates was essentially a marketing ploy to help brokers sell wine, ranking an area where they did little business held no interest for them. Pomerol didn’t get much attention from the international wine community until the 1960s, when Jean-Pierre Moueix, an entrepreneurial wine merchant, started buying some of Pomerol’s best estates and exporting the wines. Today the influential Moueix family owns Pomerol’s most famous estate, Château Pétrus, along with numerous other Pomerol estates. Pomerol wines, primarily Merlot blended with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, are considered softer and less tannic than left bank Bordeaux.