This is a massive, Port-like wine with stunning potential. I have always underrated its greatness. They just don't make great Bordeaux like this anymore, or very seldom. Plenty of sweet berry, tobacco and olive aromas. Big and chewy, with masses of fruit and velvety tannins. Sweet fruit finish.--1982 Bordeaux horizontal. Nov 1998

Saturated dark red. Knockout nose of cherries macerated in alcohol, minerals and truffle; hints at a confectionary sweetness. A wine of extraordinary concentration and power; has the thick extract to buffer its alcohol. Finishes with great grip and near-freakish length. By far the best bottle I've had to date of this wine, which in the early '90s seemed distinctly more alcoholic. (My second bottle was a tad cooler on the nose but also boasted uncommon density and thickness and an extremely powerful back end; I would have scored this bottle 95.) This vintage was my preference, as well as the first choice of both groups of tasters, despite the high quality of the other vintages poured.

A strong nose full of iodine, blood - so Lafleur in the aromatics - earthy, salted caramel, salted chocolate and red fruit. An animal savouriness to the palate, tannins are firm and filling great giving structure. There is some juiciness with lots of coffee, truffle, leather, cedar, tobacco and hints of ash. Exuberant still, quite charged, open and generous with baked and dried cherry and plum fruit. Characterful and nuanced, this is a big wine that has lost some of its easy fruity appeal and has become really quite savoury. I had very high hopes for this wine having never tasted it before, and having read some excellent comments from those who have, but this bottle lacked a touch more finesse and overall star quality that I was expecting.

The 1982 Lafleur is probably my favorite wine of the vintage, even if there are two or three wines that can rival it in quality, simply because it made such an impression on me when I first tasted it as a student. Today, from a perfect cellar where it has been stored since release, it remains extremely youthful; but it is also much more expressive than it was only six or seven years ago, offering up a singular bouquet of kirsch, sweet berries, licorice, orange zest, exotic spices and crushed mint. Full-bodied, satiny and sensual, it combines huge concentration with rare energy, exhibiting beautifully melted tannins and concluding with a long, pure finish. If I owned any bottles, and sadly I don't, I struggle to think of any circumstances in which I would willingly part with them.

The 1982 Lafleur, at least for my palate, while qualitatively no better than Mouton Rothschild, Latour, and La Mission Haut Brion, is off the charts in terms of the hedonistic and intellectual pleasure it gives me. I have only a few bottles remaining in my cellar, and this 1982 is still a young wine. The extraordinary intensity and purity of the kirsch liqueur and licorice, the remarkable opulence, the thickness and richness, yet the ability to seem fresh with laser-like precision are all things that must be tasted to be believed. This wine is showing a little bricking at the edge, but has off the chart concentration as well as a viscous texture and unreal purity and fruit. It is as close to some of the legendary 1947s that were produced in Pomerol as anything made in the last thirty years. This is a remarkable wine! Anticipated maturity: now-2030. Release price: ($325.00/case)

A wine with perfect balance and a harmony of fruit with a plum and shaved chocolate character. Full body with a dense and beautiful palate and ultra-fine tannins. Intense and racy with gorgeous fruit. Goes on for minutes. June 2016

In contention for wine of the vintage, this is what great wine is all about! The surreal levels of depth, exotic textures and an over 60 second finish packed and stacked with perfectly ripe, underripe and overripe plums, cherries and kirsch all coated with truffles, cocoa, herbs, dried flowers and tobacco leaf is one of those experiences you never forget. Tasted Dec 2021

Tasting a wine such as the '82 Lafleur, one feels almost compelled to remove one's hat and bend the knee, so great is the impression it leaves. This wine touches all the keys, from fresh and dried black fruit to truffle, earth, honey and spice. The texture is almost unbelievably velvety and smooth, with great density, power and length, yet incredible refinement and balance. An essentially perfect example of the heights to which the Right Bank can aspire. Produced from a vineyard planted almost equally to Merlot and Cabernet Franc, this is among the great wines of the century. Drinking Window: 2022 - 2065
Tasted by: Charles Curtis MW (at New York, 03 Sep 2022)
Part of Top-scoring wines of 2022: 100-point wines

The 1982 Lafleur is probably my favorite wine of the vintage, even if there are two or three wines that can rival it in quality, simply because it made such an impression on me when I first tasted it as a student. Today, from a perfect cellar where it has been stored since release, it remains extremely youthful; but it is also much more expressive than it was only six or seven years ago, offering up a singular bouquet of kirsch, sweet berries, licorice, orange zest, exotic spices and crushed mint. Full-bodied, satiny and sensual, it combines huge concentration with rare energy, exhibiting beautifully melted tannins and concluding with a long, pure finish. If I owned any bottles, and sadly I don't, I struggle to think of any circumstances in which I would willingly part with them. 100pts WK Dec 2022

The 1982 Lafleur, at least for my palate, while qualitatively no better than Mouton Rothschild, Latour, and La Mission Haut Brion, is off the charts in terms of the hedonistic and intellectual pleasure it gives me. I have only a few bottles remaining in my cellar, and this 1982 is still a young wine. The extraordinary intensity and purity of the kirsch liqueur and licorice, the remarkable opulence, the thickness and richness, yet the ability to seem fresh with laser-like precision are all things that must be tasted to be believed. This wine is showing a little bricking at the edge, but has off the chart concentration as well as a viscous texture and unreal purity and fruit. It is as close to some of the legendary 1947s that were produced in Pomerol as anything made in the last thirty years. This is a remarkable wine! Anticipated maturity: now-2030.

Tasted five times in 2002, once in 2003, this wine, on each occasion, stood out as a colossal effort even in this great vintage. The wine still has a very dense, murky ruby/purple colour, a nearly overripe nose of black cherry liqueur intermixed with raspberries, minerals, smoke, and some cold steel as well as white flowers that soars from the glass with tremendous force and staying power. Very thick, with a viscous texture reminiscent of some of the late 1940s vintages of Pomerol, high extract, and huge, opulent flavours – this wine hits the palate with a cascade of glycerine, fruit and extract. Almost over the top, but surprisingly well-delineated for its massive size, this is an extraordinary, concentrated, fabulously compelling wine that should prove to be immortal. The wine has never tasted better in its entire life than in recent tastings, yet it seems relatively young. Anticipated maturity: now-2025. (100)

The 1982 Lafleur reappears in Hong Kong but here it is (unfairly) juxtaposed against the mortal 1986 Lafleur. Maybe the 1982 is "immortal"? This bottle is firing on all cylinders – there is no stage fright here! Intense black fruit on the nose with stunning delineation, those light gravel scents more in the background than on the bottle shown at Ten Trinity. The palate just delivers everything you could wish for in a mature Pomerol. There is that perfect acidity, astonishing symmetrical structure, the energy and panache, the insistent grip towards the finish and the otherworldly long finish. The last five words of the note I jot down at the time is "As good as it gets". Sums it up really. Tasted at lunch at Cipriani private members club in Hong Kong.