Chateau Lafleur Pomerol 2020

When André Robin selected Bouchet cuttings by massale in the 1930s and then saved them from the 1956 frost by cutting frozen vines to ground level rather than uprooting them, he preserved a biotype of Cabernet Franc that winemaker Omri Ram asserts exists at only three addresses on Earth: Lafleur, Cheval Blanc, and Ausone. That genetic singularity is the structural spine of every bottle made here.

The 4.58-hectare single-block sits at the northern crest of the Pomerol plateau — the appellation's highest point — on a mosaic of gravel-over-clay and sandy-gravel parcels underlaid by an iron-rich crasse de fer sublayer. That ferric clay drives the wine's signature mineral tension, pulling it away from the plush, Merlot-fat opulence of neighbouring Pétrus toward something coiled and iron-edged.

The 2020 grand vin is built on an approximately 50% Merlot / 50% Bouchet blend, hand-harvested parcel by parcel, double-sorted, and fermented in small traditional concrete vats with ~3 weeks maceration. Malolactic completes in barrel; élevage runs 18 months in French oak barriques at ~50% new, racked every three months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, gravity-only throughout.

Lafleur is the only Pomerol estate carrying genuine pre-1956 Bouchet genetics — a structural and aromatic fingerprint no peer can replicate — and production is capped at roughly 1,000 cases, with no grand vin released in sub-standard years.

The 2020 vintage is described as among the finest in the estate's history: dense, creamy, and very concentrated with remarkable length. Drinking window: 2030–2060+.