2012 Château Lafleur, Pomerol, Bordeaux

2012 Château Lafleur, Pomerol, Bordeaux

Product: 20128123998
 
2012 Château Lafleur, Pomerol, Bordeaux

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Description

Ch. Lafleur has a brooding nose of violet, forest fruit and woodland notes. It is really intriguing, with power building up and up, followed by a precise mineral edge. One of the more concentrated palates of the vintage, it has layers of fruit but with the finesse and delicacy that is a hallmark for the year. Tannins add a touch of spice and fresh acidity cuts through the fruit, offering great finesse on the finish. This is one of the wines of the vintage and a stunning Lafleur.
Hong Kong Fine Wine Team

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Critics reviews

Wine Advocate94/100
Tasted blind at the Southwold 2012 tasting, the 2012 Lafleur has a very well-defined bouquet that is complex and laden with blackberry, granite, cedar and veins of graphite, all with razor-like precision. The palate is medium-bodied with fine delineation and lovely poise. There are plenty of graphite-infused black fruit interwoven into this Pomerol with a cheeky dab of spiciness on the finish that needs to manifest just a little more precision in order that it attains full potential. As usual, Baptiste, Julie and Jacques Guinaudeau have conjured a serious Lafleur destined for long-term ageing. Tasted January 2016.
Neal Martin - 28/10/2016 Read more
Jancis Robinson MW18/20
54% Cabernet Franc (picked 6 October), 46% Merlot (23 September). Very dark with opaque core. Dusty/mineral (that's positive, almost white pepper) fragrance. Pure dark, elegant, restrained fruit. Incredibly silky and fresh and elegant. Doesn't have that papery grip of the Pensées. Very long given its delicacy – almost a lightness – on the palate. More and more fragrant as it opens up.
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com, 29 Apr 2013 Read more
Robert Parker92-94+/100
Reminiscent of the 2001 Lafleur, the 2012 is supple and elegant as well as impressively pure, textured and medium-bodied, with sensual kirsch-like fruit intermixed with loamy soil, licorice and incense notes. While not particularly powerful, it possesses a deep ruby color with purple nuances, and is stunningly pure with no hard edges. This 2012 will be drinking well by age 5 or 6 (atypical for a young Lafleur), and should keep for 15 or more.

Baptiste Guinaudeau, the young, tall proprietor of this tiny treasure on the Plateau of Pomerol, harvested his Merlot at a perfect moment, September 23, and finished with the Cabernet Franc on October 6, several days before a huge deluge inundated Bordeaux. He spoke of 46 straight days with no rain, which created hydric stress in parts of their vineyard. The final blend for the 2012 Lafleur was 54% Cabernet Franc and 46% Merlot. Yields were low, never having surpassed 40 hectoliters per hectare in over 30 years, even in abundant years such as 1990 and 1982.
Robert Parker - Wine Advocate - Apr 2013 Read more
Decanter18.75/20
Classic in style but racy and harmonious. Pure and expressive on the nose. Berry fruits with a hint of mint. Beautifully balanced on the palate and so, so long. Not the density of a 2005 or 2010 but perfect pitch. Read more

About this WINE

Chateau Lafleur

Chateau Lafleur

Château Lafleur is A tiny 4.5-hectare Pomerol property located opposite Pétrus and producing wines of comparable quality. Lafleur is owned and run by Sylvie and Jacques Guinadeau. Its vineyards are situated on the gravel-rich Pomerol plateau and adjoin those of La Fleur-Pétrus. The soils here are particularly deep and are enriched by deposits of potassium and iron. Only natural fertilisers are used and yields are painfully low, even by Pomerol standards.

Lafleur's wine is typically a blend of Merlot (50%) and Cabernet Franc (50%). It is aged in small oak barrels (50% new) for 18 months. Wines from Lafleur display a spectacularly intense perfume (partly attributable to the high percentage of Cabernet Franc in the blend) and display layers and layers of concentrated, black fruits, minerals, tobacco spices and creamy liquorice on the palate. The best vintages can last for up to 50 years.

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Pomerol

Pomerol

Pomerol is the smallest of Bordeaux's major appellations, with about 150 producers and approximately 740 hectares of vineyards. It is home to many bijou domaines, many of which produce little more than 1,000 cases per annum.

Both the topography and architecture of the region is unremarkable, but the style of the wines is most individual. The finest vineyards are planted on a seam of rich clay which extends across the gently-elevated plateau of Pomerol, which runs from the north-eastern boundary of St Emilion. On the sides of the plateau, the soil becomes sandier and the wines lighter.

For a long time Pomerol was regarded as the poor relation of St Emilion, but the efforts of Jean-Pierre Moueix in the mid-20th century brought the wine to the attention of more export markets, where its fleshy, intense and muscular style found a willing audience, in turn leading to surge in prices led by the demand for such limited quantities.

There is one satellite region to the immediate north, Lalande-de-Pomerol whose wines are stylistically very similar, if sometimes lacking the finesse of its neighbour. There has never been a classification of Pomerol wines.

Recommended Châteaux : Ch. Pétrus, Vieux Ch. Certan, Le Pin, Ch. L’Eglise-Clinet, Ch. La Conseillante, Ch. L’Evangile, Ch. Lafleur, Trotanoy, Ch. Nenin, Ch. Beauregard, Ch. Feytit-Clinet, Le Gay.

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Merlot

Merlot

The most widely planted grape in Bordeaux and a grape that has been on a relentless expansion drive throughout the world in the last decade. Merlot is adaptable to most soils and is relatively simple to cultivate. It is a vigorous naturally high yielding grape that requires savage pruning - over-cropped Merlot-based wines are dilute and bland. It is also vital to pick at optimum ripeness as Merlot can quickly lose its varietal characteristics if harvested overripe.

In St.Emilion and Pomerol it withstands the moist clay rich soils far better than Cabernet grapes, and at it best produces opulently rich, plummy clarets with succulent fruitcake-like nuances. Le Pin, Pétrus and Clinet are examples of hedonistically rich Merlot wines at their very best. It also plays a key supporting role in filling out the middle palate of the Cabernet-dominated wines of the Médoc and Graves.

Merlot is now grown in virtually all wine growing countries and is particularly successful in California, Chile and Northern Italy.

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