Société Civile du Château Lafleur, 2020 Les Perrières de Lafleur
Cab Franc du Jour #134
Pomerol’s Château Lafleur is widely considered one of the appellation’s finest estates, spoken of in the same breath as Château Pétrus and Le Pin. But there is one aspect of Lafleur’s history that sets it apart from every other château in the region. Since 1872, Cabernet Franc, known historically on the Right Bank as Bouchet, has comprised 50% of the estate’s 4.5 hectares of vines. In a region where the classic varietal composition runs to 80% or more Merlot with up to 20% Cabernet Franc, the Guinaudeau family, current proprietors and direct descendants of founder Henri Greloud, attribute this unusual encépagement to Lafleur’s distinctive soils, which carry a higher proportion of gravels and sands mixed with clays than is typical for Pomerol.
The commitment to these precious Bouchet vines has been passed down through every generation. André Robin, son-in-law to Henri Greloud, planted vines in the 1930s by massale selection from 19th-century Bouchet vine material. His daughters Thérèse and Marie carried on his work, most notably in the aftermath of the devastating frost of 1956, when it would have been far easier and more fashionable to re-establish the vineyards with nursery clones of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Instead, they preserved what they could of the heritage plant material and rebuilt the vineyard gradually over time.
In 1985, Jacques Guinaudeau, cousin to Thérèse and Marie, and his wife Sylvie became the custodians of the estate. Later joined by their son Baptiste and daughter-in-law Julie, the Guinaudeau family has spent more than 15 years replanting all of Lafleur’s Bouchet vines by massale selection from that same original material. Today the family regards the priceless genetic heritage of their Bouchet vines as the primary source of complexity in the wines of Château Lafleur.
A New Project
That commitment to the Lafleur Bouchet has now extended into an entirely new venture. Les Perrières de Lafleur was created by Baptiste and Julie Guinaudeau out of a desire to answer a simple question: what would Lafleur’s Bouchet vines express on the prized limestone soils of the Fronsac region? After nine years of research, soil studies, and the work of purchasing and clearing the land, the first Bouchet vines from Lafleur genetic material were planted by massale selection in 2016 across two small plots near the hamlet of Meyney, on the southwest edge of the Fronsac plateau. The first vintage was 2018.
The Fronsac Region
Today’s wine takes us to the greater Fronsac region, which has one of the oldest viticultural histories in Bordeaux. Along with St-Émilion, it was among the first areas in the region to be planted to vine, dating back to Roman times, some 16 centuries before the marshlands of what is now the left bank were drained by the Dutch to make way for the Médoc. By the mid-1700s the wines of Fronsac were among the most celebrated in France, reportedly served at the court of Louis XIV. Following phylloxera, the region fell gradually out of favour, and despite its exceptional terroir, Fronsac today lives in the shadow of its illustrious neighbours, which means the wines offer remarkable value.
The greater Fronsac region sits at the confluence of the Dordogne and Isle Rivers, approximately 11km northwest of St-Émilion and 23km northeast of Bordeaux, with the heart of Pomerol just 6km to the east. While Pomerol is the closer neighbour, Fronsac has more in common with St-Émilion from a terroir standpoint, with a few important distinctions. The region is roughly one fifth the size of St-Émilion, and its position along the Dordogne gives it a slightly cooler climate. There is also virtually no alluvial soil in Fronsac; instead, the terroir is dominated by two types of limestone.
The area is built around a series of small hilltops or plateaus known as the tertres de Fronsac, sitting on a bedrock of calcaire à astéries, the same limestone that dominates the plateau in St-Émilion. These tertres generally range in elevation from about 50 to 80m above sea level, with the highest point reaching around 88m. Topsoils here are typically shallow with a silty-clay texture. Descending from the tertres at elevations of roughly 30 to 50m are the steeper slopes of molasse du Fronsadais, a softer limestone that forms the underlying bedrock of the upper slopes in Fronsac, again mirroring what is found on the higher slopes in St-Émilion. Topsoil depths and textures vary across this zone, generally running deeper than those found on the plateau, ranging from silty-clays to more clay-dominant soils with occasional sandier pockets.
The Vineyard
The 2020 vintage of Les Perrières de Lafleur is drawn from 3.6 hectares of vines, of which approximately 1.91 hectares are Bouchet. The Bouchet vines are planted across two separate lieux-dits near the hamlet of Meyney, in the commune of Villegouge, less than 200m from the border of the commune of St-Germain-la-Rivière on the southwest part of the Fronsac plateau. The parcels sit about 2.5km north of the Dordogne River, a position that makes them somewhat cooler than vineyards located further inland on the plateau. Elevation is around 80m above sea level, and the soil profile is 40 to 50cm of calcareous silty-clay over a bedrock of yellowish calcaire à astéries.
The Bouchet was planted in 2016 by massale selection from Lafleur vine material at a density of around 4,800 vines per hectare, with the Merlot following in 2017, also by massale selection. An additional 2 hectares will eventually come into production following a fallow period and soil regeneration with cover crops, with one plot planted in 2023 and another planned for the coming spring, with the intention of maintaining a 50/50 split between Bouchet and Merlot over the long term. All vineyard work is carried out by the same team and to the same standards as Château Lafleur.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested and sorted three times in total, twice in the vineyard and once at the cellar, then fully destemmed. The Bouchet and Merlot are vinified separately in a combination of stainless steel and concrete, reaching a maximum fermentation temperature of 30C. Skin contact ranges from 15 to 25 days depending on the variety, with very gentle extractions throughout, using light pump-overs and constant tasting to gauge the right level of extraction. The wine is then aged for 15 months in barrel, approximately one third new and two thirds one-year-old. Total production for the 2020 vintage was around 11,000 bottles.
It is worth noting that the 2020 assemblage is 71% Bouchet and 29% Merlot, which is not representative of the typical blend. Some of the Merlot parcels were not yet fully in production this vintage, resulting in less Merlot in the blend than usual. Going forward, the wine is intended to be approximately 50/50 Bouchet and Merlot.
Wine Details
Producer: Société Civile du Château Lafleur (Famille Guinaudeau)
Appellation: Bordeaux Supérieur
Commune: Villegouge
Hamlet: Meyney
Lieux-Dits for the Bouchet vines: Les Poulains, Les Canards
Soils: 40-50cm calcareous silty-clay over calcaire à astéries
Assemblage: 71% Bouchet, 29% Merlot
Alcohol: 15.0%