France · Bordeaux

Chateau Lafleur

Chateau Lafleur in Pomerol is one of Bordeaux's most extraordinary and diminutive estates, producing from just 4.5 hectares a wine that rivals Petrus in critical scores and surpasses it in auction prices on a per-bottle basis in many recent vintages. Owned by the Guinaudeau family since 1946, the estate is unusual in Pomerol for its significant Cabernet Franc planting—approximately 50% alongside 50% Merlot—a proportion giving Lafleur structural complexity and aromatic intensity that distinguishes it from the purely Merlot-dominated profiles of Petrus or Le Pin. Jacques Guinaudeau and his wife Sylvie have managed the estate with meticulous attention, farming biodynamically without certification and maintaining yields well below appellation norms. At auction, 848 lots average $1,206 per bottle with prices reaching $17,925—the highest average per bottle of any estate in this batch and among the highest in Bordeaux overall. The 2005 vintage is the top auction year, though 1947, 1982, 1989, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015 are all canonical benchmarks. The second wine Pensees de Lafleur provides rare access to the estate's character at below-$200 price points.