More and more the 1978 Lafleur is looking like one of the two or three finest wines of the vintage, along with La Mission-Haut-Brion and Latour. This dark plum/garnet-colored wine exhibits a knock-out nose of black cherry fruit intermixed with licorice, minerals, cedar, and spice. Medium to full-bodied, with powerful tannin remaining, this highly extracted wine is atypical for the 1978 vintage. It is a weighty, broad-shouldered, muscular, virile 1978 that is just beginning to reveal secondary nuances and complexity. I have always thought this wine could develop along the lines of the 1966, and I am more convinced than ever that it is the seventies clone of that vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2020. Last tasted 11/97

Layered and complex, with loads of cassis and blackberry flavors and classic-tasting Lafleur terroir coming through in the mineral, lead pencil, wet earth character. A bit tougher than the '70.--Chateau Lafleur vertical. Best from 2002 through 2010. -PM

More and more the 1978 Lafleur is looking like one of the two or three finest wines of the vintage, along with La Mission-Haut-Brion and Latour. This dark plum/garnet-colored wine exhibits a knock-out nose of black cherry fruit intermixed with licorice, minerals, cedar, and spice. Medium to full-bodied, with powerful tannin remaining, this highly extracted wine is atypical for the 1978 vintage. It is a weighty, broad-shouldered, muscular, virile 1978 that is just beginning to reveal secondary nuances and complexity. I have always thought this wine could develop along the lines of the 1966, and I am more convinced than ever that it is the seventies clone of that vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2000-2020. Last tasted 11/97