Chateau La Gaffeliere 2014

Professional Ratings

• 96 Wine Enthusiast
  This is a fine and aromatic wine that has great structure while also considerable elegance and superb balance. Dense tannins are coupled with freshness and bright black-currant fruit, keeping the palate lively. The finish is bright and fruity.
  Barrel Sample: 94-96
• 94 James Suckling
  I love the precision and verve to this with berry, sliced mushroom and flower characters. Full body, yet so tight and refined. Beautiful length and focus. Drink or hold.
• 94 Decanter
  Things were really getting into their stride at this point at La Gaffelière, with a clear step forward in terms of precision, balance and power. The replanted Cabernet Franc had now entered its second decade, starting to express undercurrents of black pepper spice, liquorice and gentle floral aromatics, adding acidity and power without overdoing anything. It's a great wine, with the generosity and impact of a St-Emilion Premier Cru Classé, building in complexity slowly over the palate. This will deliver for many decades.
• 93 Wine Spectator
  A lovely blackberry puree note leads this off, followed by hints of fig and plum. Alluring licorice and juniper flavors start to fill in, backed by an accent of smoldering tobacco. The structure is persistent but very fine-grained. Best from 2020 through 2030.
• 92 Jeb Dunnuck
  The 2014 Château La Gaffelière is also a beautiful wine that’s more supple, elegant and classic in style than the more concentrated 2015. Pure, seamless, and beautifully textured, this medium to full-bodied 2014 gives up impressive intensity and depth in its ripe blackcurrant, black cherries, spring flowers and mineral aromas and flavors. I love its complexity and balanced, lengthy, classic style, and it should drink handsomely for 10-15+ years.
• 91 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2014 La Gaffeliere appears to have improved since it's showing in barrel (I did hint at this at the time). The nose is perfumed and slightly floral, certainly well defined with neatly integrated oak, dark fruit emerging with aeration in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with slightly edgy, chalky tannin on the entry, shrouded by plenty of dusky black fruit and a potent, graphite-tinged finish. This is one to watch.