2010 La Fleur Morange

The more traditional cuvee, the 2010 La Fleur Morange is an equal-part blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc from a tiny, 4.5-acre parcel. This is showing better from bottle than it did from barrel. Remarkably, it has 15.5% natural alcohol, which may be the highest level of natural alcohol of any of the wines from the better estates in Bordeaux. Of course, there is not much of it, since yields were 17 hectoliters per hectare, so there are only about 200+ cases of this wine in the marketplace. Dense purple, with oodles of mulberry, black raspberry and violets, this is a beautiful wine, elegant, but at the same time massively fruity, thick, unctuously textured and long. I am sure some serious tannins are lurking beneath in this extravagantly endowed, sumptuously textured Bordeaux. Drink this wine over the next 15+ years. Feb 2013, www.robertparker.com