Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Smells ripe and concentrated, blackcurrant, black cherry and plum. Tension and minerality to the fore here, this is streamlined and direct, less layered and plump but has excellent depth and density with silky smooth tannins - they have structure but so well integrated giving bite rather than chew. Floral accents give a lovely delicate framing to the flavors, elegant and refined but still so powerful. Really concentrated and intense underneath the frame - there is structure here but it’s tightly wrapped and delivered very linear at the moment. The fruit is ripe no doubt but they also have a real savory tone with a wet stone, salty, soy, iro and iodine tang on the finish - clear markers of the terroir. Sophisticated, complex, persistent and detailed. A contemplative wine with purity - and part of the overall excellent range from Lafleur this year.
Barrel Sample: 95 -
Vinous
The 2021 Les Perrières is the wine in the Guinaudeau family's range readers should focus on. Sure, Lafleur is epic, but it requires connections and resources to acquire. The Perrières, on the other hand, is easier to find, costs a fraction of the Grand Vin, and guess what? It is fabulous in 2021. Dense and packed, the Perrières overwhelms the senses with its captivating beauty. Dark fruit, gravel, spice, menthol and lavender infuse this virile, somber wine with tremendous nuance. I would be thrilled to own it. –Antonio Galloni
Barrel Sample: 93-95 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The cooler vintage has lent the 2021 Les Perrières de Lafleur an even greater sense of transparency than preceding vintages, even if this bottling has always had a remarkably pronounced site signature. Unfurling in the glass with deep aromas of raspberries, plums, Indian spices, burning embers and licorice, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with beautifully refined tannins, lively acids and an intensely mineral finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The third vintage for this Fronsac estate coming all from a massal selection from Château Lafleur in Pomerol, the Cabernet Franc-dominated 2021 Les Perrieres De Lafleur sports a deep purple hue to go with a brilliant perfume of ripe black cherry and black raspberry fruits, intermixed with tons of flora, chalky minerality, and graphite-like aromatics. More precise, focused, and elegant than the Grand Village yet just as concentrated, it will be drinkable in just a few years and have 15 years or more prime drinking.
Rating: 93+ -
James Suckling
A racy and refined red with a beautiful center palate of integrated tannins that flow into the wine. Medium-bodied and creamy, with an extremely polished, juicy finish. 62% cabernet franc and 38% merlot. Drink or hold.
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.