Wine Advisor
Lafleur 2000
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Description
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. By the 1980s, Chateau Lafleur was on its way to becoming one of the world’s most in-demand wines selling for more than the First Growths. In 1975, Robert Parker made his first visit to the estate and since then never stopped writing about the wine. His comments on Chateau Lafleur excited consumers all over the world, and thus became one of those Pomerol wines that tied to the success and continuous praise heaped on the wine by Robert Parker.
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
I am not surprised the 2000 Lafleur has garnered the magical three-digit score. From bottle, the wine boasts a dense plum/purple color in addition to a gorgeous nose of kirsch liqueur intermixed with hints of black truffles, raspberries, and minerals. The tannin is present, but seems to creep up only upon intense inspection. Lafleur is enormously endowed, rich, and full-bodied, with a tremendous chewiness and, at the same time, sensuality. Pure, massive, and rich, with exceptional levels of glycerin and fruit nearly concealing high levels of tannin, and a 60+ second finish, this is a remarkable achievement, and ... just maybe the finest Lafleur since the 1982. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2040+.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2000 Lafleur has an incredible nose, very intense, stalking you, building with every swirl to reveal intense blackberry, wild hedgerow, limestone and a touch of wild heather. You could inhale this all day. The palate is full-bodied, brilliantly focused, perfect acidity, caresses the palate and does not dominate the palate, controlling its puissance with unerring style. Extremely focused and pure, but like the 2001 it is barely at first base of its evolution. This is all about the balance and precision, and wine really does not come better than this. Drink 2025-2075+ Tasted September 2008.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted at Justerini & Brooks agency tasting in London. The Château Lafleur 2000 is a monumental wine. Imagine a Harley Davidson thundering down the tarmac. Wouldn't you want to get on? It has an extremely intense, but ineffably pure nose with more mineral expression than the Lafleur 1995. It has loosened up a little since I last tasted it, but I concur with Robert Parker that if I were lucky enough to have some of these in my cellar, I would wait until 2020 to experience the wine at its plateau. Allowing the wine to open over 30 minutes, I notice an almost flinty scent developing on the bouquet. The palate is medium-bodied, crystalline and symmetrical—everything beautifully focused—almost Left Bank in texture. This had a firm backbone, but that is becoming more "flexible" in recent years, and it fans out with consummate ease on a finish that is so long that it makes "War and Peace" seem like a short read. This is simply magnificent. Tasted February 2015.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
An awesome effort, the 2000 Lafleur has added even more weight since last year. Truly prodigious, it has a skyscraper-like feel in the mouth, huge extract, massive body, a saturated purple color, and a finish that lasts well over one minute. Its flavors, and aromas to a certain extent, represent the essence of black truffle juice infused with kirsch liqueur, raspberries, and liquified minerals. A boatload of tannin is evident, thus anyone over sixty years of age might want to reconsider buying it. Sadly, there are only 1,000 cases of this awesome Lafleur. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2040+.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
An utterly awesome wine, the only problem with the 2000 Lafleur is that I indicated its maturity window would be 2012-2040+. Based on two tastings of it, I would now argue 2020-2060+. Yes, it is that backward, but it has extraordinary potential. Dense ruby/purple to the rim, this fabulously concentrated wine has a sweet nose of kirsch liqueur intermixed with licorice and subtle floral notes as well as a hint of truffle in the background. It is stacked and packed on the attack, with a multi-dimensional mid-palate of unbelievable intensity of concentration and richness, yet at the same time all this power is allied to striking elegance, purity, and depth. This is great Bordeaux, a profound Lafleur, and in about ten years, much of its magic should begin to be unleashed. If you can find it, it is an extraordinary wine, and as expensive as it was a decade ago, it will look cheap compared to prices for more recent vintages.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
Tasted from an ex-chateau bottle at the Lafleur vertical dinner at Attersee in Austria. I have not tasted this behemoth for two or three years, but even against the mighty twins of 2005 and 2009, I believe that this is the one that they have to match up to. The nose rivets your feet to the spot. It is almost Left Bank in terms of grandeur, as if Latour and momentarily been transferred to Pomerol. It displays astounding delineation and intensity with primal black fruits, crushed stone, Alpine streams and graphite. The palate is full-bodied and remains very backward. It has a precision of a Swiss timepiece with a fabulous sense of minerality, almost shimmering with tension. There is an ineffable sense of harmony here. Truly, this is a masterpiece. Tasted June 2012.
Reviewed by: Robert M. Parker, Jr.
The opaque purple-colored 2000 Lafleur represents a return to the powerful yet prodigiously concentrated style that made this estate so famous. It is not a wine for neophytes or those unwilling to defer their gratification for more than a decade. Dense and sweet, it possesses a complex bouquet of liquid minerals, black raspberry liqueur, kirsch, truffles, currants, and incense. Extremely long as well as excruciatingly tannic, but well-balanced by its wealth of fruit and extract. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2040. Sadly, there are only about 1,000 cases produced from Lafleur's minuscule vineyard.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2000 Lafleur is a monumental Pomerol that I have been fortunate to taste almost a dozen times over the years. Now reaching adulthood, it has a deep colour with very little maturity showing on the rim. The bouquet is quite profound, if still a little broody and backward, adorned with captivating scents of blackberry, raspberry, crushed stone, and struck flint tincture that I have remarked on previously. The palate is medium-bodied with damn near perfect line of acidity, utterly harmonious and frankly this is difficult to fault. Filigree tannin, just a subtle touch of spice, layers of pixelated black fruit with astonishing clarity on the finish – it delivers the complete package. This Lafleur has long been a standout of the 2000 vintage and it continues to cruise at altitude as it enters adulthood. Tasted at the Christies’ Lafleur masterclass in London.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright ruby-red. Huge, superripe, rather sauvage nose combines roasted berries, grilled meat, roasted nuts, tar and tobacco; showing some distinctly uncivilized notes of great Lafleur vintages of the past. A huge wine with impressive fat and volume. Classic superrich Lafleur notes of cherry liqueur, game, truffle and burning tobacco. A bit disjointed on the back today, with big, somewhat harsh tannins. But this outsized wine displays great power and persistence.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Bright medium ruby. Roasted red berries, iron, truffle, minerals, burning tobacco and burnished oak notes on the nose. Sweet, rich, dense and deep; impressively layered and concentrated. The flavor of burning tobacco repeats in the mouth, along with kirsch and minerals. Finishes fat, rich and long, with full, ripe tannins buried in fruit.
Reviewed by: Stephen Tanzer
Deep ruby. Liqueur-like aromas of crushed black fruits and dark chocolate. Huge, lush and full, with great richness framed by ripe acids. The dark berry and bitter chocolate flavors build and explode on the back half. Communicates an impression of three-dimensional thickness. Substantial but fine tannins are buried under a wave of fruit. A very young, very promising wine with great richness and persistence. Potentially even better than the '99, which in turn was richer than the '98 Lafleur.
About the Producer
In 2002, the Gwinoders completely acquired Lafleur, becoming the sole owner of Lafleur, and have been operating it ever since. Huabao now has 4.5 hectares of vineyards. The soil types in the garden are diverse, including gravel, clay and gravel. Generally speaking, these soils are relatively poor and very suitable for grape planting. Among the grape varieties planted in the vineyard, Merlot (Merlot) and Cabernet Franc (Cabernet Franc) are equally divided, each accounting for 50%, the planting density is 6,000-7,500 plants/ha, and the average tree age is 30 years.
1975(1)1976(1)1982(1)1985(1)1988(1)1989(1)1990(2)1993(1)1994(2)1995(3)1996(4)1997(3)1998(6)1999(7)
Package Size
1 x 75cl12 x 75cl3 x 1.5L
