93 pts – Wine Advocate
For readers with 10-15 years of patience, this exceptionally concentrated, massive, tannic, backward, opaque purple-colored Lafleur offers considerable promise. The provocative nose of licorice, violets, black-raspberry, and truffle-like fruit is followed by a huge, tannic, forbiddingly backward, super-concentrated wine that should be purchased only by those willing to wait until the end of the first decade of the next century. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2030. RP
83 pts – Wine Spectator
87 pts – Vinous
The 1994 Lafleur is a vintage that I drank regularly in the days when such off-vintages were cheap. However, it has long been a wine that seems permanently stuck in a “root day”: green and herbaceous on the nose, “Loire meets Pomerol” on the palate. Quite simply, I don’t think the Cabernet Franc achieved full ripeness in this growing season.-Neal Martin (11/2018)
