47% Merlot geplukt tussen 8 en 12 september en 53% Cabernet Franc geplukt op 28 en 29 september. Lafleur 2017 werd een fenomenale Pomerol: crémeux, soyeux, minéralité en structure. Zijn uitstraling is zuiver met een intense kern van fris zwart fruit met tonaliteiten van chocolade, vanille en mocca. Rijkelijke tannines betoveren, terwijl het beklijvend fruit met verfijning op het voorplan treedt. Ook Lafleur bleef gespaard van vorst en is ongetwijfeld één van de meest magische wijnen van het wijnjaar 2017. Bravo aan Baptiste Guinaudeau en zijn dreamteam. Lafleur is de hoogst scorende wijn bij Neal Martin.
IN DE PERS
97 Neal Martin – vinous.com (Februari 2020)
The 2017 Lafleur is very deep, almost opaque in colour. This has a very intense bouquet that clearly shrugs of any risk of frost to produce copious black fruit laced with white pepper, clove, truffle and crushed stone. It actually seems to close in a little with aeration instead of opening up. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins, very fresh and certainly very mineral-driven. A pixelated but "serious" finish suggests as usual, this is a long-term Pomerol. Baptiste Guinaudeau has overseen one of the wines of the vintage. Drink 2026-2060.
95-97 Neal Martin – vinous.com (Mei 2018)
The 2017 Lafleur was picked 8 to 12 September and 28 and 29 September for the Merlot and Cabernet Franc respectively. It has a very impressive bouquet, frankly, one of the best that I have encountered in Pomerol, perhaps on the Right Bank. Despite the higher proportion of Cabernet Franc, the Merlot is more expressive with black cherries, a touch of cassis, sea spray and a hint of iodine. It just gains intensity with every swirl of the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with firm but fine tannin, layers of black and red fruit mixed with white pepper, sage and a slight ferrous note towards the persistent finish. This is an awesome 2017 from Baptiste Guinaudeau, one of the few that will oblige several years in the cellar.
100 Antonio Galloni – vinous.com (Maart 2020)
I tasted many superb 2017s, but only a few that are viscerally thrilling and emotional. The 2017 Lafleur is one of a handful of wines that ascends into the stratosphere. Rich and exotically beautiful, the 2017 possesses off-the-charts intensity, tremendous aromatic depth and an impossibly long finish. A rush of dark plum, licorice, leather and mocha leaves the last impression in a wine I can only describe as: eternal. The 2017 spent about nine months in oak, 30% new. It is a towering achievement from the Guinaudeau family and their trusted associate, Omri Ram. If you can find it, buy it. And please invite me over sometime to share it with you! Drink 2027-2057.
95-98 Antonio Galloni – vinous.com (Mei 2018)
The 2017 Lafleur is without question one of the wines of the vintage on the Right Bank. Dense powerful and structured, the 2017 is all class. Given the wine's richness, I was not surprised to learn that the berries were even smaller in 2017 than they were in either 2016 or 2015. Powerful, explosive and beautifully layered, the 2017 simply has it all. What a wine. This is a tremendous showing from the Guinaudeau family.
95 Jane Anson – decanter.com (April 2018)
The more gravelly soils of Lafleur have responded beautifully this year, expressing a real creaminess and density to the black fruits. There's a clear Cabernet Franc edge to the nose and to the attack on the palate, with a corresponding austerity and tightness to the tannins and a slightly chewy finish. There's a sense of momentum as the acidity rises through the palate, and it certainly has some of the power and sense of confident elegance of the 2016 vintage here. They avoided most of the frost damage here, and so were able to harvest the Merlots before the rain, between 8-12 September, and waited until 28-29 September for the Cabernets. Drink 2026-2040.
98+ Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW – robertparker.com (April 2018)
Composed of 52% Cabernet Franc and 48% Merlot, the 2017 Lafleur displays a deep garnet-purple color. It slowly unfurls in the glass to reveal a profound nose of plum preserves, mulberries, boysenberries and licorice with nuances of grilled meats, black truffles, cast-iron pan and crushed rocks plus fragrant wafts of cinnamon stick and violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is charged with fantastically energetic black and blue fruits, framed by super-ripe, finely grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length. At this stage of the game, qualitatively the 2017 Lafleur is one to two ticks short of where the 2015 and 2016 vintages are. This said, I'm anticipating there are a lot of latent nuances here waiting to emerge, snuggly filling this substantial structure over the next decade. It should be quite delicious in 6-8 years, but I'd give it 10-15 at least for maximum impact. Drink 2028-2065.
Chateau Lafleur was protected from the 2017 frosts. “Back in 2013 we started thinking about frost,” Lafleur and Family Guinaudeau’s cellar master Omri Ram informed me. “We bought smudge pots in 2014 with Petrus. The afternoon before the 2017 frost, we deployed 1500 smudge pots. At Lafleur, there were no vines that were directly hit. Yields were slightly above average. We think this wine is in the same family as 2015, 2016 and 2018...maybe 2019.” Unaffected by the frosts, quantities were stable for Lafleur in 2017, and they enjoyed yields similar to their 2015 and 2016 crops. “A tad less wine than in 2015, a tad more wine than in 2016,” Ram commented. “The berry size in 2017 was tiny—like in 2015.” As readers will ascertain from my score, Lafleur is one of the few properties that did not miss a beat in 2017, producing a truly extraordinary effort that is stylistically very different from their 2015 but potentially its equal in terms of quality. However, circumstances were different at the other Guinaudeau vineyard sites. At Grand Village, there was considerable frost damage. “In the beginning, we estimated 50% of the vines were affected,” said Ram. “We decided not to use these at all. We pruned them right back straight away. But later we saw that some vines we thought were OK were, in fact, affected. They stopped growing or got sluggish. We had to decide, are we happy with these vines? Finally, we thought, no. This was another 35% or more of the vines. In the end, we did not use 80% to 90% of the vines. We have very little Grand Village this year. This year the wine has a much more limestone-intense character.” “For us the case was very clear from the beginning,” Ram continued. “We are vignerons. Either we have great grapes, or just forget about it. Some things got damaged—using them was not an option.”
97-100 Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW – robertparker.com (April 2018)
Lafleur’s 2017 Merlot came in just before the rain. Cellar Master Omri Ram commented, “The 2017 Merlot was very similar to the 2015. With the Cabernet Franc, we waited; we were patient, and it came in ripe yet more fresh than the Merlot.” As it turns out, that combo of the wonderfully decadent Merlot and the galvanizing Cabernet Franc are just magic! Blended of 47% Merlot and 53% Cabernet Franc, the 2017 Lafleur has a medium to deep garnet-purple color and opens with a positively electric intensity of red and black fruits—cherries, black plums, red currants, black raspberries and mulberries—with touches of roses, cinnamon stick, smoked meats and forest floor plus a hint of truffles. Medium to full-bodied with densely packed layers of red and black fruits accented by floral and earthy sparks, it possesses very firm, very finely pixelated tannins and a lively backbone, finishing with epic persistence.
97-98 James Suckling – jamessuckling.com (Maart 2018)
A structured and muscular red with blackberry, dark-chocolate and mineral character. Violet undertones. Very tight and tannic. Full-bodied, extremely closed and concentrated. Steely.
18,5/20 Julia Harding MW – jancisrobinson.com (April 2018)
Very dark. Darkly fragrant. Incredibly pure cassis nose and just a touch of graphite/mineral dustiness. Super-elegant fine tannins, more dark charm than Les Pensées. Paper-fine texture slides across the palate in delicate persistence. Layers of paper giving embryonic complexity. Gorgeous. Utterly refined. Incredibly long. Drink 2027-2040.
95-97 Jeb Dunnuck – jebdunnuck.com (April 2018)
One of the wines of the vintage is the 2017 Lafleur, which comes from a vintage compared to 2011 by owner Baptiste Guinaudeau. Not harvested until the 12th of October (which is very late), it offers a heavenly bouquet of black raspberries, exotic flowers, and crushed rocks. Possessing full-bodied richness, shocking mid-palate depth and concentration (especially in the vintage), ripe tannin, and a big finish, it’s a gem of a wine that will need only short-term cellaring yet age beautifully.
97 Jean-Marc Quarin – quarin.fr (April 2018)
18,5-19,5/20 Revue des Vins de France – rvf.com (April 2018)
96-98 Greg Sherwood – gregsherwoodmw.com (April 2018) - With vineyards unharmed by the frost, the blend is 47% Merlot and 53% Cabernet Franc. Merlot was picked before the rains on the 8-12th Septemberas the fruit was beautifully ripe. The aromatics are wonderfully precise, pure and focused, with black bramble berry fruits, black cherry and blackberry jam on buttered brown toast. The palate is broad and expansive, filling the mouth, coating it with concentrated black plum, creamy saline cassis, milk chocolate nuances and chalky, gravelly fine tannins. Wonderful front palate weight, a dense core of fruit and a really profound textural harmony and elegance. Still embryonic, this wine has the genetics and the pedigree to be another fantastic Lafleur vintage.
GuinaudeauJacques en Sylvie Guinaudeau en nu hun zoon en schoondochter, Baptiste en Julie, staan aan het roer van Lafleur. In Pomerol staat deze legendarische wijngaard bekend als «le vignoble-jardin ». Lafleur is eigendom van hun familie sinds 1872, één jaar na de stichting van Vyncke-Daels…
Lafleur is een mythe en één van de allergrootste wijnen van Bordeaux. Hij is diep, intens, karaktervol en cerebraal. Omwille van zijn zeer beperkte productie (om en bij de duizend kistjes) is het cult- en knuffelgehalte bij verzamelaars wereldwijd bijzonder hoog. Naast Petrus heeft Lafleur waarschijnlijk het mooiste terroir van Pomerol, ook al rekent Lafleur voor 65% op Cabernet Franc om de droom werkelijkheid te maken; bij Petrus draait het om 100% Merlot. Samen brengen ze de allerbeste Pomerols en dat met de regelmaat van een klok.
Julie en Baptiste wonen op Lafleur, en Sylvie en Jacques op Grand Village in Mouillac nabij Fronsac (ze maken er een knappe rode en een vibrante witte Bordeaux). Op de weg tussen Grand Village en Lafleur startten ze in 2009 een nieuw avontuur met "G de Guinaudeau" die ze graag bestempelen als "een grote wijn in wording". Onlangs werkten ze zelfs met Sauvignon Blanc druivenstokken uit Sancerrre om een piepkleine productie witte wijn te maken die de naam kreeg « Les Champs Libres ».
Het mag tegenstrijdig lijken maar de familie Guinaudeau zijn perfectionisten met een laissez-faire attitude. Hun inborst en werkwijze toont hoe je het hoogste niveau kan bereiken van op drie verschillende terroirs.
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