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Tasting notes
The 1975 Lafleur has always been a monumental wine and this was one of the best examples that I have had the pleasure to drink. Deep in color, it is endowed with an ineffably complex bouquet that is extraordinarily perfumed for its age: red fruit, briary, sandalwood, broom, rose petals and sage. It gains volume and intensity with every swirl of the glass whilst never losing one iota of freshness. The palate is medium-bodied, the tannins have melted since I first encountered the 1975 over a decade ago. Yet there is still immense density and grace to this Pomerol – utterly harmonious with a leafy and autumnal finish. That is not to infer that it is approaching the end of its drinking plateau. It is a wine built in very deep foundations and well-stored bottles will continue to leave jaws dropped on floors. Tasted at the “International Wine & Business” Lafleur dinner at Ten Trinity, London.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Tasted at the Pomerol Comparative Exploration tasting in London, the 1975 Lafleur is a wine that I have only encountered once back in 2004. This rare bottle hails from the last few years of Lafleur under the aegis of Marie and Thérèse Robin. It sported a deeply coloured core with some bricking on the rim. The nose is beguiling: black truffles, decayed autumn leaves, loam and touches of meat juices. It is rustic for certain, but quite profound and intoxicating. The palate is masculine and still structured after four decades. It is old school from start to finish, a heavyweight bruiser that feels drier than the 1978 Lafleur, but perhaps has more weight if not quite the length of other vintages I have tasted. This must have been a formidable wine in its youth, though perhaps now it is just beginning to become a little frayed at the seams towards the finish. It might lack grace and perhaps now it has been overtaken by Petrus and Trotanoy. Yet this is a beguiling Pomerol, one that they just don't make any more.
Very luscious healthy shaded blackish ruby with brick rim. But on the nose this seems a bit faded and lacks freshness. An old lady’s boudoir – or am I being so fanciful because Michael Broadbent is sitting almost next to me? Bloody and big and fruity and powerful and lots of impact with rather furry tannins on the finish. Long and neat and gives lots of pleasure. Mint toffees on the nose and tough, chewy, grainy tannins. Tannins will not meld more, I feel. This became increasingly attractively fresh and floral on the nose as it sat in the glass (JR)
At one time a perfect wine, my three-digit score has dropped simply because I am not sure the huge tannins this wine possesses will ever fully melt away. Nevertheless, it is still one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted for its tremendous singularity and intensity. The color is still a murky plum/purple that shows a bit of amber at the edge. The nose is strikingly intense, with an almost liquid minerality intermixed with fig, truffle, spice, plum, and black cherry as well as blueberry. In the mouth the wine is massive, with searing levels of tannins, but monumental levels of extract and concentration. I would not be surprised if some of the great 1928s or 1945s tasted like this in their first 20 years of life. This wine is still very backward, yet with decanting of 6-10 hours (the normal operative procedure when opening this wine), the wine is prodigious. A 50 to 75-year wine? Anticipated maturity: 2005-2050. Last tasted, 8/02.
About the producer
The Société Civile du Ch. Lafleur is the collective name for the Guinaudeau family’s wines and estates. These are some of the Right Bank’s most famous wines, including Ch. Lafleur and Les Pensées in Pomerol, along with Les Perrières, Les Champs Libres and Ch. Grand Village in Fronsac.