Pomerol 2020
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Rated 100/100 by James Suckling (top 1% of their reviews).
From our sommelier team
A small-production Pomerol built on an unusually high proportion of old-vine Cabernet Franc (locally called Bouchet) alongside Merlot, giving a firmer, more structured, longer-aging profile than most of its Merlot-dominant neighbors.
Château Lafleur farms a compact plot of roughly 4.5 hectares on a gravel-and-clay rise in Pomerol, planted to roughly half Merlot and half old-vine Cabernet Franc — locally known as Bouchet — with sources putting the exact split anywhere from about 60/40 to 50/50 depending on vintage; whatever the precise figure, it is a proportion of Cabernet Franc far higher than almost any other Pomerol estate, most of which lean heavily on Merlot. This unusual varietal balance is the estate's defining technical fact: it gives the wine a firmer tannic spine, more overt herbal and floral lift, and a slower-developing, longer-lived character than the plush, Merlot-forward style typical of the appellation. Winemaking at Lafleur is deliberately restrained — native yeast fermentation, gentle extraction, and aging in a mix of new and used French oak barrels without excessive new-wood influence — in keeping with the estate's long-standing motto of quality over quantity. Because volumes are so small, the wine is scarce and closely tied to the identity of whoever farms the vineyard, which is part of why ownership transitions here (there have only been a handful across two centuries) are closely watched by Bordeaux followers.
Producer history
Lafleur was created in the 1870s when Henri Greloud, who also owned neighboring Château Le Gay, purchased a small parcel of vines and built the house and cellars that became Lafleur. The property passed to André Robin, who worked to establish massale plantings of Bouchet (Cabernet Franc) in the vineyard during the 1930s and set the estate's long-standing ethos of quality over volume. From 1946 to the early 1980s, sisters Marie and Thérèse Robin ran Lafleur and Le Gay together with famously old-fashioned methods, farming without herbicides or pesticides and using oxen in the vineyard until the end of the 1970s. In 1984, Jacques and Sylvie Guinaudeau — descendants of the original Greloud family — took over running the estate, later acquiring it outright after Marie Robin's death in 2001, and their son Baptiste and his wife Julie have since joined the domaine, continuing family stewardship into a new generation.
Signature pairings
- Roast duck breast with a red wine or fruit jus — Duck's fat and richness soften the wine's firm Cabernet Franc-driven tannin, while the wine's savory, herbal edge complements a jus-based sauce rather than competing with a sweeter glaze.
- Grilled lamb chops with herbes de Provence — Lamb's fat and char stand up to the wine's structure, and the herbal quality of Cabernet Franc naturally pairs with rosemary and thyme seasoning.
- Aged Comté or Gruyère — A firm, nutty aged cheese has enough density and umami to meet the wine's structure without a sweet or overly pungent note fighting the Cabernet Franc's herbal character.
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+.
Details
- Country
- France
- Region
- Bordeaux
- Subregion
- Pomerol
- Variety
- Merlot, Cabernet Franc
- Vintage
- 2020
- Bottle size
- 750 ml
Taste profile
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium-High
- Tannin
- High
Pairs well with
- Lamb dishes
- Grilled red meat & steak
- Cured meats & charcuterie
- Hard & aged cheese
- Duck & game birds
- Creamy pasta & risotto
Sommelier’s pick: Roasted rack of lamb with rosemary jus and gratin dauphinois · Périgueux-sauced beef tenderloin with black truffle shavings · Braised short rib with bone marrow and celeriac purée
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