Lafleur 2019

Made from 53% Merlot and 47% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc), the 2019 Lafleur is deep garnet-purple in color. It slowly grows in the glass, emerging with scents of blueberry compote, prunes, and dark chocolate, followed by suggestions of garrigue, cedar, and wild sage. The full-bodied palate is firm, grainy, and hedonic, featuring loads of savory nuances and finishing on a lingering aniseed note.

Rich and powerful on the nose, with layer upon layer of black and brambly fruits, fresh tobacco leaf. Really one to drink in, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, pencil lead, tobacco, flint, crushed earth, cigar box, inky and powerful and extremely confident. It has so much of the freshness and power of the 2016, with hints of smoked caramel that point to the generosity that is contained within the layers, set against the severity of slate minerality and tight tannins. Likely to shut down pretty severely from now, needs to be given a good 10 years.

Tasted blind. Deep crimson. Light, fresh, transparent on the nose but so sweet and gorgeous on the palate. Good combo! Very long and detailed. Real richness and complexity here. Throat-warming. 15%Drink 2028– 2050

The 2019 Lafleur has a bouquet that takes its time to unfurl in the glass, then renders you speechless. Mind-bogglingly intense black fruit, crushed stone and a hint of licorice display astonishing delineation, and blue fruit emerges with time. The palate is medium-bodied with finely chiseled tannins. As is customary, this feels very strict and, on reflection, represents the most quintessential Lafleur I have tasted in my many years of visiting the estate. Tensile from start to finish, it fans out audaciously and seems to never end. Baptiste Guinaudeau compared it with the 2005 and described it as a "[four-letter-expletive] you" Lafleur. When you taste this, you see what he means. An awe-inspiring Pomerol that will give decades of drinking pleasure for those prepared to wait. 2030 - 2070

The 2019 Lafleur has a more fruit-driven bouquet, perhaps a little less cerebral than its peers in this flight. Mulberry intermixed with pencil box and undergrowth. With aeration, thankfully, it does gain more nuance and complexity. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grain tannins, symmetrical, quite austere with Early Grey, bay leaf and clove, superb crescendo towards the almost audacious finish. Stunning. Tasted blind at the Southwold annual tasting. Drink 2026-2065.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2019 Lafleur needs a fair amount of coaxing to unlock profound scents of wild blueberries, warm plums, and Morello cherries, with suggestions of candied violets, aniseed, iron ore, roses, and cinnamon toast, plus a hint of crushed rocks. The full-bodied palate is already jaw-droppingly impactful, featuring bright black, blue and red fruit layers with firm, multi-dimensional tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. There's so much fruit here, but it is always in the background, beautifully restrained behind the beguiling personality of Lafleur. The blend this year is 53% Merlot and 47% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc).

Never the most exuberant during En Primeur, this is deep inky purple in colour with a violet rim. On the palate you get touches of iris, with an earthiness alongside, coupled with a grip of tannins that expands through the mid palate then clamps down again pretty sternly on the finish. Strong liquorice and chocolate notes, but the emphasis is clearly on slate and crushed stones, cigar box and cloves, with a strong, serious spine. I don't give 100 during En Primeur, but this is as close as it gets, and is a reflection of just how impressively the Pomerol plateau has performed in the 2019 vintage. Stainless steel vinification then 15 months ageing in barrel, 33% new oak. Drinking Window 2027 - 2050