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95+ JG.
"Eighteen months ago I had a bottle of 1983 Lafleur that was rather wide open and accessible vis a vis this bottle, and it was one of the more dramatic bottles of young Pomerol that I have ever had the pleasure to taste. This particular bottle was a bit tighter on the palate than that particular bottle, with a firm girdle of youthful acidity keeping the wine reigned in on the palate. However, aromatically, this wine is young and wonderfully exotic, with scents of crushed raspberries, fruit cake, roasted venison, woodsmoke, herbs, tobacco, orange rind, coffee, earth and cedary wood. To my mind this is the last of the wildly sauvage Lafleurs (perhaps with the 1986 as well), with subsequent efforts taking on more of a polished and classically Pomerol-like veneer. On the palate the wine is quite full-bodied and exotic, with a iron-clad structure of tannin and acidity keeping the exuberant fruit quite under wraps today. The finish is long, chewy and packed with dense and tangy fruit, with a slight streak of herbaceousness running through from attack to finish. This bottle came from a case that was bought on release and buried at fifty-five degrees since day one, and it is significantly more backwards than the last couple of passes I have had through the wine. A great, great and young Lafleur." View From the Cellar, Bonus Articles, Right Time, Right Bank (Originally April 2001, updated November 2003) (11/1/2003) |