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A long way from being ready to go – I would suggest at least another six years – but it is going to be worth the wait for this wine. I’ve tasted it now on several separate occasions, and every time been blown away by its purity, succulence and precision. Blackberries, blackcurrants, liquorice, rosemary, aniseed and tight grilled tannins, all offset by violet aromatics. Serious, powerful, sets its own pace. Drinking Window 2026 - 2045.Decanter | 100 DECA thrill a minute as well as one of the most singular, exotic, elegant wines in the vintage, the 2016 Château Lafleur is a blend of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot that’s only from the choice lots of estate vineyard. Brought up in one-third new French oak, this saturated ruby/purple-colored effort offers heavenly notes of raspberries, blueberries, camphor, dried flowers, and ground herbs, and it has a Grand Cru Burgundy-like complexity and elegance. Full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, ultra-pure, and seamless, it has flawless balance as well as a monster finish. Haute couture at its finest, this is a magical wine to drink over the coming 3-4 decades.Jeb Dunnuck | 99 JDThe texture of this wine is so memorable. The incredible tannins are so fine and creamy that they envelop both your mouth and your mind. The wine is full-bodied yet ethereal and balanced with incredibly energy and character. The flavors just keep on changing, from cherries and currants to truffles and earth. Some brick and terracotta, too. Fresh throughout with complete clarity. Great structure, yet creamy and light. Try after 2024.James Suckling | 99 JSThe 2016 Lafleur is blended of 55% Cabernet Franc and 45% Merlot grown mainly on gravel over clay. Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the nose begins by slowly releasing gorgeous, beguiling scents of truffles, black soil, crushed rocks and smoked meats, giving way to a beautiful perfume of red roses, dark chocolate-covered cherries, oolong tea and lavender with wafts of cigar box and iron ore. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is completely coated with taut, tightly wound yet ethereally weighted layers of earth, mineral and perfumed black fruits, firmly fixed by very fine-grained tannins and great freshness, finishing very long and incredibly fragrant.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 99 RPThe 2016 Lafleur is an eternal, complete wine in which everything just seems to fall into place naturally. Creamy and voluptuous in the glass, with exceptional balance, the 2016 possesses superb textural intensity allied to soaring aromatics. Strong Cabernet Franc signatures give the wine brilliante and layers of saline-infused energy. Rose petal, mint, crushed flowers and dark red fruits abound, but it is the wine’s total sense of completeness that is most astounding today. "I have to say, 2016 came totally out of the blue," Baptiste Guinadeau commented. "In 2010 and 2015 we had a pretty good idea of the kind of wines we were going to make during the growing season but in 2016 we really had no clue until harvest approached. It was only then that we started to get a sense of how the wines might turn out.Antonio Galloni | 99 AGThis is a dense, generous wine with fine fruit and concentrated tannins. I find lots of acidity here but also a solid base of tannins. It has a good, long-term future.Wine Enthusiast | 93 WE

I tasted many superb 2017s, but only a few that are viscerally thrilling and emotional. The 2017 Lafleur is one of a handful of wines that ascends into the stratosphere. Rich and exotically beautiful, the 2017 possesses off-the-charts intensity, tremendous aromatic depth and an impossibly long finish. A rush of dark plum, licorice, leather and mocha leaves the last impression in a wine I can only describe as: eternal. The 2017 spent about nine months in oak, 30% new. It is a towering achievement from the Guinaudeau family and their trusted associate, Omri Ram. If you can find it, buy it. And please invite me over sometime to share it with you!Antonio Galloni | 100 AGOMG. What a glorious wine on the nose with aromas of blackberries, black licorice, ink and blood-oranges. Full-bodied, tight and powerful with compact tannins that cascade across the palate, giving this incredible structure and length that makes it seem to go on for ever. Titanium and graphite flavors. Super length. Half merlot and half cabernet franc. Try after 2025.James Suckling | 99 JSComposed of 52% Cabernet Franc and 48% Merlot, the 2017 Lafleur displays a deep garnet-purple color. It slowly unfurls in the glass to reveal a profound nose of plum preserves, mulberries, boysenberries and licorice with nuances of grilled meats, black truffles, cast-iron pan and crushed rocks plus fragrant wafts of cinnamon stick and violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is charged with fantastically energetic black and blue fruits, framed by super-ripe, finely grained tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with epic length. At this stage of the game, qualitatively the 2017 Lafleur is one to two ticks short of where the 2015 and 2016 vintages are. This said, I'm anticipating there are a lot of latent nuances here waiting to emerge, snuggly filling this substantial structure over the next decade. It should be quite delicious in 6-8 years, but I'd give it 10-15 at least for maximum impact.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 98+ RPAfter working tirelessly protecting their vineyards during the spring frosts, the team at Chateau Lafleur was rewarded with a normal production of their 2017 Chateau Lafleur, as well as one of the wines of the vintage. Deep purple-hued with a stunning nose of blackcurrants, black raspberries, chocolate, tobacco, and ground herbs, this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a deep, layered mid-palate, and incredible length. It shows the more classic, straight style of the vintage yet has brilliant concentration, awesome tannins, and will last for 30-40 years.Jeb Dunnuck | 97 JDThe more gravelly soils of Lafleur have responded beautifully this year, expressing a real creaminess and density to the black fruits. There's a clear Cabernet Franc edge to the nose and to the attack on the palate, with a corresponding austerity and tightness to the tannins and a slightly chewy finish. There's a sense of momentum as the acidity rises through the palate, and it certainly has some of the power and sense of confident elegance of the 2016 vintage here. They avoided most of the frost damage here, and so were able to harvest the Merlots before the rain, between 8-12 September, and waited until 28-29 September for the Cabernets. Drinking Window 2026 - 2040.Decanter | 95 DEC