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More and more the 1978 Lafleur is looking like one of the two or three finest wines of the vintage, along with La Mission-Haut-Brion and Latour. This dark plum/garnet-colored wine exhibits a knock-out nose of black cherry fruit intermixed with licorice, minerals, cedar, and spice. Medium to full-bodied, with powerful tannin remaining, this highly extracted wine is atypical for the 1978 vintage. It is a weighty, broad-shouldered, muscular, virile 1978 that is just beginning to reveal secondary nuances and complexity. I have always thought this wine could develop along the lines of the 1966, and I am more convinced than ever that it is the seventies clone of that vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2020. Last tasted 11/97 Jan 1998, www.robertparker.com
Wine Description
The Story
Between the estates of Pétrus and La Fleur-Pétrus, amid vineyards, stands a stone house with closed shutters. The road that winds to the house between the vine rows has no signs or indications as to the name of the place. The construction looks more like a maintenance shed for the neighbouring estates than the main building of a winery. However, this is a house that makes one of the most desirable wines in Bordeaux: Château Lafleur.
Lafleur’s wines form an interesting contrast to their neighbour, Pétrus. Their terroirs differ significantly, even though the distance between them is only 50–100 metres. Whereas Pétrus is more seductively rich, full-bodied and intense, Lafleur is charming in its elegance, femininity and subtlety.
Lafleur’s wines are delightful, but they do require aging for at least twenty years in order to display their full, nuanced character. Guinaudeau’s investments into improving quality in all of Lafleur’s functions promise an even better future for the friends of Lafleur. Although tasting the 1947, 1950, 1961, 1975 or 1982, one can only wonder whether Lafleur’s wines could get any better?
Vintage 1978
Bordeaux Vintage Report / 1978 turned out to be a very good vintage particularly in Pauillac and St Julien.
“The miracle vintage”. Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong until mid-August. But thanks to the beautiful sun and the heat from that moment on, the vintage was saved. The best wines come from Médoc and Graves. Château La Mission Haut Brion produces the wine of the vintage. I had very good bottles of Châteaux Margaux, Léoville Las Cases, Latour, Haut Brion, Cheval Blanc, Pichon Lalande and Palmer. Most wines should be drunk soon.
It would be wise to choose the best chateaux of this vintage just because some of the lesser estates are on the hill. The best will continue to drink until 2010-2012. Lafite Rothschild is the wine of the vintage.
