Château La Fleur de Gay 2019

Noticeable oak imprint, yet also polish and a certain elegance despite the fire, staying true to itself.

Blackcurrant, coffee beans and toast on the nose. This is ample and so concentrated with a deep core of black fruit and liquorice. Tannic muscle but carefully integrated, supporting the fruit to give an overall balanced frame. Feels sophisticated, heady and seductive. Long ageing potential.

Dried berries with dried spices, such as nutmeg and hazelnut, highlighting the whole thing. Full-bodied with a big, rich palate and lots of fruit and toffee. Oak spotlights it all. Give it time to open. Best after 2025.

The 2019 La Fleur de Gay comes across as a bit evolved. Ripe dark cherry/plum fruit, cedar, worn-in leather, licorice and espresso are pushed forward. Soft edges and slightly advanced flavors give the 2019 plenty of immediacy. I would prefer to drink it sooner rather than later.

Medium-bodied, fresh, silky and refined, the supple-textured layers of plums, cherries, licorice, smoke and espresso, along with the wine’s floral essences, hit all the right notes. Supple, refined, lush and polished, with ample sweet, ripe plums and dark cocoa on the finish, this will offer pleasure early, yet age well too. Drink from 2025–2045.

Sweet red fruit, plum confit and some floral notes, a soft and supple palate, with good ripeness and rounded extract, plush and long finish.

The 2019 Château La Fleur De Gay showed well, with perfumed red and black fruits as well as notes of baking spices, dried herbs, and chocolate. Nicely textured, medium-bodied, balanced, and elegant, it's another impeccably made Pomerol in the vintage. Drink bottles over the coming 10-15 years.

Purplish red. Opulent bouquet, ripe plums, with a grenadine note in the background that feels distracting—no perfect pattern. On the plush palate, a creamy texture with supporting, vibrating acidity. In a catapult-like finish, the wine shoots forward and ends with a full load of blue berries, juniper, and supportive astringency. Potential rating with reservations.

Kunz barrel sample 2020: (89% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, 14.8% vol. alcohol, production 7,500 bottles) Concentrated, deep, complex, mineral bouquet, black cherries, blueberry jelly, flint, pralines. Tightly woven, velvety, multi‑layered palate with concentrated aromatics, plenty of fine tannins, a creamy, finely muscular structure, powerful, fresh fruit, very long, dense, full finish with many lingering aromas.

(89% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, 14.8% alc./vol., production 7,500 bottles) Concentrated, deep, complex, mineral bouquet: black cherries, blueberry jelly, flint, pralines. Densely knit, velvety, multi-layered palate with concentrated aromatics, plenty of fine tannins, a creamy, finely muscular structure, powerful, fresh fruit, and a very long, dense, full finish with abundant lingering aromas. 19/20 2025 - 2055

Plump, ripe fruits on display here, with well-judged extraction and silky, chocolate-covered tannins that place you firmly in Pomerol. This is ripe and concentrated but not overly sweet, with fresh acidities lifting the mid-palate, and a cappuccino, grilled almond curl on the finish. Plenty to enjoy from this 2ha estate owned by the Raynaud-Lebreton family. 23hl/ha yield, first year with Axel Marchal as consultant.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 La Fleur de Gay is in a much better place than when I last tasted it. It features notes of fallen leaves, dusty soil, and bay leaves over a core of ripe black plums and blackberry preserves. The full-bodied palate is rich and plush, with loads of earthy sparks and a soft-spoken finish.

Shy yet sensual, fleshy, aromatic, with stewed fruit (blackberry, blackcurrant) and little summer flowers, the nose evokes a walk through a field of freshly cut grass. On the palate, the wine reveals a growing, persistent energy, with a rich, dense fruit core wrapped in floral freshness. A lovely chalky back-texture that lingers on the finish.

Logo on the cork: AL Beautiful deep red, intense and purplish. Very aromatic nose with ripe fruit and, for the first time, real complexity. Hints of plum and truffle. Soft on entry, very refined to the touch, with plenty of flavor and a striking physical and aromatic presence; the wine soars on a powerful, distinguished finish, yet remains meticulous in its texture. A composition of great harmony. It’s unspittable. Bravo! The estate is on the rise.