Château Lafleur is the most singular and discussed small estate in Pomerol, producing wine from a mere 4.5 hectares of old-vine Merlot and Cabernet Franc in extraordinary proportions, with the Cabernet Franc frequently comprising 50% or more of the blend, creating wines of a completely distinctive character that sets Lafleur apart from every other Pomerol estate including Pétrus. The estate, owned and farmed by Baptiste and Sylvie Guinaudeau, consistently produces wines of extraordinary depth, aromatic complexity and longevity that have attracted the finest critical scores from all approved publications across a succession of the twenty-first century’s greatest Bordeaux vintages. Lafleur was named the outstanding wine of the 2021 Bordeaux vintage by multiple critics, receiving 97-98+ points from James Suckling, Vinous and Decanter alongside extraordinary praise from every observer who tasted the wine.

The 2003 Lafleur occupies a special position in the estate’s history: produced from one of the most extreme and controversial vintages in Bordeaux’s modern era, when the catastrophic summer heatwave of 2003 produced wines of exceptional alcoholic richness and atypical concentration across the left bank, the Lafleur from this vintage benefitted from the Pomerol plateau’s natural thermal moderation through the clay-dominant soils’ water retention capacity. The wine is at twenty-two years from harvest in a stage of development that the finest Lafleur vintages consistently reach in the second decade of their lives: the primary fruit having given way to complex secondary and tertiary aromas of extraordinary mineral depth and aromatic individuality.

A 2003 Château Lafleur is a wine of genuine historical significance: one of Pomerol’s greatest small estates, from a controversial but fascinating vintage, at a stage of development that is both accessible and deeply complex. For Lafleur collectors who understand the estate’s unique character and who appreciate the 2003’s unconventional style as a document of an extraordinary season rather than a conventional expression of the estate’s classical elegance, this is an important and rare acquisition.

Deep ruby with a developed nose of rich dark cherry, dried plum, iron, tar, chocolate, tobacco, dense mineral and the unmistakable aromatic depth and individuality of mature Lafleur Cabernet Franc-dominant Pomerol at its most evolved. Full-bodied with rich, well-resolved tannins, excellent residual acidity and a long, savoury, mineral finish. Drink now through 2032.