The 2020 Pensées de Lafleur unwinds in the glass with deep aromas of cherries, raspberries, crushed mint and black truffle. Full-bodied, layered and velvety, with a broad and enveloping attack that segues into a deep and rather taut mid-palate, it concludes with a long, penetrating finish. As usual, this isn't a second wine, per se: it derives from vines growing in the part of Lafleur's vineyard through which a watercourse once flowed and where the soils are richer in clay and better hydrated, and the Guinadeau family like to refer to it as more stereotypically Pomerolais than Lafleur itself. The 2020's tension and structure, however, mark it out as the most Lafleur-like Pensées of recent years.

Checking in as 71% Merlot and 29% Cabernet Franc from more clay soils across the estate vineyard, the 2020 Pensées De Lafleur has a classic Pomerol-like style in its darker blue fruits, iron, damp earth, and leafy herb-driven aromatics. These carry to a medium to full-bodied, tight, closed, yet incredibly promising Pomerol that deserves 5-7 years of bottle age and will keep for at least two decades. It’s easy to think of this cuvée as a second wine, but the reality is that it comes from the same vines every year, and if anything, it's a more classic Pomerol compared to the more singular, exotic Château Lafleur.

Tasted by Jane Anson(at Primeur week tastings in Bordeaux, 01 May 2021)

This has the physicality of tannins right up front, a clear signature of the vintage, but nothing is heavy or bitter, rather they exert a pressure that gives form and shape to the ripe berry fruits, balanced by mocha, fennel and smoked cocoa bean. Not as joyous as in some vintages of Pensées, but extremely hard to argue with its quality, and the deft, bright finish.

Drinking Window 2024 - 2040

Savoury nose full of chocolate, dark fruits, herbs and menthol spice - deep and dense with sweet violet aromas too. Power and the density, generous, charming and open - fruit forward with dark liquorice, cool blue fruit and clear salinity. I love the hint of juiciness and the liquorice aspect, it’s serious, brooding and layered but at the same time so discrete and so well delivered - polished to perfection. Characterful and intense but so moreish.

Generous aromatics, richly textured, powerful and earthy, signature Pomerol with the deft touch of Lafleur. Opens wide and generous and then tightens and grips. This is a gorgeous wine filled with black cherry, damson, mocha, orange zest, all with a whisper of aniseed bitterness that stops the fruit from being overly sweet.

The 2020 Les Pensées de Lafleur is a wine that I rated very highly at the blind Southwold tasting—but on this bottle, perhaps in juxtaposition with the 2019, there is a patina of over-ripeness on the nose. The palate nevertheless delivers the goods with ripe black cherries, dark chocolate and a deft sprinkle of spice. This coheres marvellously in the glass with gentle grip. Tasted from ex-château magnum at Kate & Kon's 40-Year vertical in Austria.

(71% M, 29% Bouchet)
Dense black-fruit nose, lightly earthy, too; full, fresh, very fine in tannin; ample and beautifully but finely fleshy, a mouthcoating wine combining a gently clayey substance on the one hand, with a subtle energy and abundant, ethereal Cabernet Franc fragrance on the other, a sort of vinous chiaroscuro! Its pure clay origin notwithstanding, this is a very refined expression of Pomerol, with great perfumed persistence, a wine of greater density than the Perrières, but noticeable freshness and delicacy, too. Beautiful. 2030–55+.

71% Merlot, 29% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc). Cask sample.
Gourmand but elegant at the same time. Rich, full and creamy but not fat, the fruit expressive and tannins finely honed. Dark-fruit aromas with a minty note from the Bouchet (Cabernet Franc). Tannins pull everything together on the finish. Slight warmth on the end. (JL)71% Merlot, 29% Bouchet (Cabernet Franc). Cask sample.
Gourmand but elegant at the same time. Rich, full and creamy but not fat, the fruit expressive and tannins finely honed. Dark-fruit aromas with a minty note from the Bouchet (Cabernet Franc). Tannins pull everything together on the finish. Slight warmth on the end. (JL)

Tasted blind. Very dark crimson. Ripe black fruit, a deep leafy note without being green. Chewy yet refined tannins. All in place, all harmonious. Beautifully balanced. (JH)