2022 Château Lafleur

The 2022 Lafleur is one that caught me out when blind because it can often be misconstrued as lacking some fruit, when it has a proclivity to shut down after bottling, hence my advice never to broach it until it has 10 years on the clock. This has a ripe nose with redcurrant, cranberry and rose petal scents, black tea and light touches of hickory that emerge with time. The oak is well integrated. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, quite peppery with an underlying bitter edge, quite sustained and again, overtly peppery on the finish. A demanding but quite profound Pomerol. Tasted blind at the Southwold tasting in London.

Blackberries, boysenberries, black raspberries, chocolate, cherries, liqueur, and a cornucopia of floral aromas build with each swirl and sniff. The palate offers intensity, opulence, power, depth, and viscosity. The levels of depth and concentration are off the charts, leaving you with an unctuous, seamless finish that leaves the 60-second mark in the rearview mirror. Like all great Lafleur vintages, this has almost unlimited aging potential, yet the wine can be enjoyed after about 5 years of bottle age. The wine blends 51% Cabernet Franc and 49% Merlot. 14.5% ABV.

The 2022 Lafleur has turned out even better in bottle than I anticipated. Wafting from the glass with exotic aromas of mulberries, potpourri, iris, blood orange and incense, it's full-bodied, dense and layered, with a deep and multidimensional core of sweet, succulent fruit underpinned by velvety tannins, concluding with a long, expansive, rose-inflected finish. Élevage has brought a sense of harmony and classicism to the volume and richness that were already apparent en primeur, delivering a Lafleur for the ages.