Société Civile du Chateau Lafleur

Terroir
They hold a unique and rare position in the Bordeaux landscape. The vines at Château Lafleur are planted on top of three distinct soils: To the northwest, sandy-clay gravels. To the south and east, clay gravels. At the heart of the vineyard, gravelly sands. This very rare combination of soils allows such unique wines to be formed at Château Lafleur.

The Varietals
The unique ensemble of grape varietals must be acknowledged, having the vineyard planted with equal parts of Bouchet and Merlot undoubtedly plays a major role in the complexity of Château Lafleur. The priceless genetic heritage of the vineyard at Lafleur, above all the old vine Bouchet, contributes to the Guinaudeau’s wine.

On the right bank, Bouchet is the historical name of Cabernet Franc. Some of the Bouchet vines at Lafleur originate from the massale selection done by André Robin during the 1930s. His daughters, Thérèse and Marie Robin, managed to save many of those vines after the frost of 1956. For the last 15 years the Lafleur team have been busy re-establishing this massale selection, and all of their present day plantings are based exclusively on this unique genetic. The same Bouchet de Lafleur has been planted in the vineyard of Les Perrières. The fossil-spotted limestone at Les Perrières is very close to the surface, and emerges with each plowing. This intense limestone terroir is a perfect match for the Bouchet.

Château Lafleur
Les Pensées
Les Perrières
Les Champs Libres
Château Grand Village
Château Grand Village white

Founded in 1987 by Sylvie and Jacques Guinaudeau, Les Pensées is situated among the greatest wines of the plateau of Pomerol. The wine derives from a small stretch of clay in the center of the Lafleur vineyard.

Creating it just two years after taking the reins at the vineyard of Lafleur, their objective was to assure great quality wine on a regular basis for the grand vin Château Lafleur. Up until the 2000 vintage the selection of grapes were primarily based on the age of the vines, with the vines being in their youth between 1988 to 1999.

The 2000 vintage was the tipping point for a new philosophy behind the grape selection. It evolved to rely almost exclusively on the nature of different soils. Therefore, vintage after vintage the size and borders of the new cru was refined further and became wedged in the heart of the vineyard of Lafleur.

Today Les Pensées is a member in the exclusive circle of the great wines of Pomerol’s plateau. To mark this important transformation, the label for Les Pensées was redesigned, while keeping the iconic graphic style of Château Lafleur.

Situated along an east-west diagonal, the vineyard of Les Pensées covers bits and pieces of the historically defined parcels. This cru covers almost 0.7 hectare on soil composed of clay, sand and some gravel. Geological history and the layout of this cru are the sources of its soil’s formation, resulting in a terroir much different from the surrounding Lafleur parcels: more clay, less gravel, richer and deeper, and more typical to the soils of Pomerol. In most years, harvest of the 4000 vines of Merlot and Bouchet is completed a few days after the parcels for Château Lafleur.

Les Pensées brings together finesse and complexity. This cru reveals a different expression of the vineyard of Lafleur, translated through the great clay terroir of Pomerol instead of Lafleur’s mighty gravel. The tiny size of this cru makes it a very rare wine, and quite difficult to acquire.

Varietals: Merlot and Bouchet

Founded in 2018 by Julie and Baptiste Guinaudeau, Les Perrières is a novel interpretation of the unique Bouchet de Lafleur, translated through the great limestone terroir of the Fronsac region. Les Perrières derives from four adjacent parcels on the plateau of Meyney.

Les Perrières was born from the idea of creating a new vineyard, planted with Bouchet vines from Lafleur on top of the famous fossil-spotted limestone soils of Fronsac. Nine years of research and life-size experimentation were needed for Baptiste and Julie to finally complete the vineyard of Les Perrières: terroir selection, soil studies, purchasing parcels, uprooting existing vines and, finally, planting. The evocative name “Acte” was given to the first nine vintages of exploration. Those first nine “Actes” were indispensable in giving birth to this new cru called Les Perrières, for which 2018 is the first vintage.

The heart of Les Perrières is located at the hamlet of Meyney, on the south-west crest of the plateau of Fronsac. The subsoil is occupied by ancient limestone quarry tunnels. The soils of Les Perrières are composed of very shallow light clay on top of a massive limestone rock. The vineyard itself accounts for 50% Bouchet originating from Lafleur and 50% Merlot. All vineyard works are carried out by the team of vignerons from Lafleur, and with the same high standards as in Pomerol.

Varietals: Merlot and Bouchet

Founded in 2013 by Julie and Baptiste Guinaudeau, Les Champs Libres is a reflection of the Lafleur philosophy through a white wine. Les Champs Libres originates from the clay-limestone soils on the plateau of Louima, a great match with the genetics of Sauvignon Blanc.

This new cru is the fruit of extensive experience combined with precise work on the white parcels at Grand Village. The history of white wine at Grand Village is an ancient one, and Julie & Baptiste have always believed that great whites could be made on this terroir. In fact, the clay-limestone soil and sub-soil of some of the parcels seemed to be perfect for the creation of a grand Sauvignon Blanc. In the past ten years, together with the team, the Guinaudeaus applied an extremely qualitative approach both in the vineyard as in the cellar, investing energy and time in the elaboration of these white wines. These efforts bore fruit with the whites showing considerable progress in recent vintages.

Eventually, in 2013, they decided to blend the best barrels coming from three key Sauvignon parcels: À Louima, Les Pêchers and Les Acacias, to create Les Champs Libres 2013. And so, Les Champs Libres came to life.

A new parcel, Mathilde, joined in 2014 to complete this new cru. In just a few vintages, Les Champs Libres became a grand white wine, without ever abiding to the “rules” of great white Bordeaux.

Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc

A remote ancestor, Jacques Verdery, founded Château Grand Village in 1650. This vineyard is the birthplace of the Guinaudeau family of vignerons. The estate is situated in Mouillac, a part of the canton of Fronsac, and covers 50 hectares of land. The surface is divided between 20 hectares of vineyard positioned on the plateau and gentle slopes of Grand Village, and 30 hectares of woods and meadows.

Together Jacques and Sylvie took charge of the vineyard of Grand Village in 1980. Still cherishing sweet memories from that period, including the 1982 and 1990 vintages which are memorable testimonies of the great potential that exist in the clay-limestone terroir at Grand Village. For the last twenty years a new journey has been written for Grand Village. With Baptiste and Julie they embarked on a new adventure, taking a bold decision to work the vineyard and vinify the wines of Grand Village with the same approach and philosophy at Lafleur.

Château Grand Village quickly became a singular wine, a down to earth Bordeaux crafted with the means and in the spirit of a grand cru. Since then, considerable progress has been made in both the vineyard and cellar.

Varietals: Merlot and Bouchet

Founded in 1990 by Sylvie and Jacques Guinaudeau, the white wine of Grand Village originates from clay-rich soils situated on top of the limestone mother rock. This is a wine of great complexity and an exceptional personality.

As the family has been growing vines at Grand Village since the 17th century, there is no doubt about the very early appearance of white varieties in the estate’s vineyard. With the viticulture sector crisis in the 1960s, those white varieties slowly gave up their place to be replaced with red grapes. Yet convinced by the great potential of the soils at Grand Village to yield great white wines, Jacques and Sylvie decided to replant a number of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon parcels in the early 1990s. The first vintages were very encouraging, with white wines full of freshness, to be enjoyed in their youth. Then with a few experiments with barrel aging, the ability to create complex whites at Grand Village was confirmed.

With the arrival of Baptiste and Julie in the new millenia, major improvements began taking place. First concentrating towards the white vineyards by putting in place high end vineyard management procedures that were utilised at Lafleur. Then began the planting of new parcels with vine stock originating from the great Sauvignon Blanc of Sancerre – rich, complex and mineral.

Important evolutions to our white winemaking techniques followed. Great progress is achieved at the cellar with the refinement of our work methods, mastering oxygen intake and barrel aging on the lees. The white of Grand Village evolved in the passage of just a few years into a different wine.

Varietals: Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon

“Above all we are vignerons, present throughout the year in our vineyards and cellars, our goal is to understand and work with nature and climate as best as we can. Château Lafleur, based on the three pillars mentioned above, is a rare wine, bringing together in harmony both power and finesse.” - Jacques Guinaudeau

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