Château Lafleur

The château

Henri Greloud bought the vineyard at the hamlet of Lafleur in 1872, and his descendants farm it still; the wine has come from the same small plot ever since. The trade took notice quickly. Charles Cocks and Édouard Féret, whose Bordeaux et ses vins was the reference book of the Bordeaux trade, knew only a compound Pétrus-Lafleur in their edition of 1874, but the English edition of 1883 printed the estate under its own name, Domain of Lafleur, under H. Greloud, at 10 tonneaux (the old Bordeaux measure of a crop, 900 liters, or 4 barrels). By 1886 they called the little enclos of about 4 hectares, planted in the modern way on pure gravel, “without contradiction the prettiest vineyard in the arrondissement of Libourne,” and in 1893 they praised the delicious perfume of its wines. The same Greloud held La Dominique, across the boundary in Saint-Émilion.

The sisters Thérèse and Marie Robin ran Lafleur from 1946. They kept the vineyard free of herbicides and pesticides and worked it with oxen until 1979, when the last animal died and they bought a tractor. Jacques and Sylvie Guinaudeau took charge in 1985, and their son Baptiste and his wife Julie run it now. In 1987 the Guinaudeaus created Les Pensées as a second wine, from a small stretch of clay in the middle of the gravel; they now treat it as a grand vin (the estate’s first wine) in its own right.

The vineyard is 4.5 hectares on the Pomerol plateau, gravel and clay, at 6,000 to 7,500 vines a hectare and close to 40 years old on average, and the family counts those old vines as the heritage it has to keep. It is planted 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Franc, which the family calls by its old Bordeaux name, Bouchet.

On August 24, 2025 the Guinaudeaus announced that Lafleur would leave the Pomerol and Bordeaux appellations altogether and label its wines Vin de France from the 2025 vintage. Pomerol has never been classified, so what Lafleur gave up was an appellation, not a rank. All 6 wines go with it: Lafleur, Les Pensées, Les Perrières, Les Champs Libres and Le Grand Village, red and white. Le Grand Village Blanc shows the same hand. The 2022, which I tasted in January 2026, had citrus, white peach and a saline, mineral core, with energy and a calm confidence; not flashy, not obvious, and deeply satisfying.

At a glance

Appellation

Pomerol; Vin de France from the 2025 vintage, announced August 24, 2025

Classification

Michelin Guide, 3 grapes (2026)

Owners

The Guinaudeau family, descendants of Henri Greloud, who bought the vineyard in 1872

Direction

Baptiste and Julie Guinaudeau; Jacques and Sylvie Guinaudeau took charge in 1985

Vineyard

4.5 hectares on the Pomerol plateau; 6,000 to 7,500 vines a hectare; vines close to 40 years old on average

Soil

Gravel and clay Terroir of Pomerol →

Grapes

Merlot 50%, Cabernet Franc 50%, which the family calls Bouchet

Wines

Château Lafleur; Les Pensées, from 1987; Les Perrières; Les Champs Libres; Le Grand Village, red and white

Not to be confused with

Château Lafleur du Roy and Château La Fleur-Pétrus

In history

Printed under its own name from 1883, at 10 tonneaux; “the prettiest vineyard in the arrondissement of Libourne” in 1886