This wine goes from strength to strength, and is developing even better than I initially expected. More backward than most of the big, Cabernet Sauvignon-based 1990 Medocs, it is full-bodied and viscous, but not as thick or oily as the 1982 can be. The 1990’s fresh, pure black raspberry, incense, and minerality characteristics result in a young, legendary wine. Still deep, it is 4-10 years away from full maturity, and should evolve for another 30+years. It is an amazing achievement. (Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate#183, June 2009, 97+Pts)
Still developing but becoming more formed, this wine shows fabulous extract, a dense purple colour, and a sweet nose kirsch liqueur that is almost similar to the famed Chateau Rayas of Chateauneuf du Pape. This wine is full-bodied, somewhere exotic, but still very youthful and not yet in its adolescence. The viscous texture, profound richness in the mouth, and extraordinary purity all suggest a potential legend in the marking. The wine still ends considerable cellaring. (Robert Parker, Bordeaux Book, 4th Edition, The Wine Advocate, January 2003, 96 Pts)
The 1990 Lafleur is equally powerful, muscular, and super-concentrated, but the tannin is riper as well as better integrated resulting in a phenomenally extracted wine revealing the 1990 vintage’s overripneness. There are copious amounts of sweet black-cherry fruit. One taster remarked, “why does this wine taste so much like Rayas (the renowned Grenache-0based Chateauneuf du Pape)?” There is an unreal reality to such a comment, largely because both producers tend to pick their fruit at an overripe stage, producing an exotic, compelling wine. Despite its size, the 1990 Lafleur is more developed than the 1989, but it will easily be as the long-lived given its massive weight, viscous texture & profound mouthfeel & finish. It needs 5-10 more years of cellaring & will last for four decades., Both of these vintages, rival the great Lafleurs of 1982, 1979, 1975, 1950, 1947, & 1945. (Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate#109, February 1997, 97 Pts)
