Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
This is a wine for those who really love going deep-diving into limestone. It performs the acrobatic, trapeze artist feat of tiptoeing high above the palate with gunsmoke, cool blueberry and redcurrant fruits and flowers curling upwards. Austere and fierce, stretching forward, then softening as it opens, although it takes its time to do so. There is really a feeling that they are doing something different here, thinking deeply about what it means to link wine's sense of a place to its expression in a glass. Brilliant.
Barrel Sample: 94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Unfurling in the glass with aromas of raspberries and cherries mingled with hints of rose petals and spices, the 2020 Les Perrières de Lafleur is medium to full-bodied, deep and velvety, with a concentrated core of fruit that's framed by beautifully refined tannins and animated by lively acids, concluding with a long, intensely mineral finish. As readers will remember, this exciting new project derives from holdings on the limestone plateau of Fronsac planted with massal selections from Lafleur. Best after 2027. Rating: 94+
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James Suckling
A fresh and vivid red with sliced berry and cherry aromas and flavors with hints of chocolate. Salted caramel. Medium body. Fine tannins.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Home of the very first remarkable Right Bank wines, dating back to the 1730s, Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac actually retained more fame than Pomerol well into the 19th century. Today these wines represent some of Bordeaux’s best hidden gems.
Fronsac is a very small region at an unusually high elevation compared to other Bordeaux appellations. Its vineyards unroll along the oak-dotted hills bordering the river’s edge, making it perhaps Bordeaux’s prettiest and most majestic countryside.
Merlot covers 60% of the vineyard acreage; the rest of the vines are Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Fronsac and Canon-Fronsac appellations are limited to the higher land where soils are predominantly limestone and sandstone. Lower vineyards along the Dordogne River mainly qualify for Bordeaux AOC status
The best Fronsac are deeply concentrated in ripe red and black berry; they have a solid mineral backbone and are rich and plush on the finish.