Château Perron La Fleur 1998, Lalande de Pomerol

"Nec Falerno Minor." Not lesser than Falernian. The estate has this set in stained glass on the property wall, a reference to the most celebrated wine of ancient Rome. It is a bold claim for a Lalande de Pomerol estate, and exactly the kind of quiet confidence that makes the satellite appellations around Pomerol worth paying attention to.

From the Bordeaux archives: Falernum was produced on the slopes of Monte Massico in Campania and aged for decades in sealed amphorae. Pliny the Elder classified it into three tiers by vineyard elevation. That a 21st century estate in Lalande de Pomerol still measures itself against a wine last produced under Roman governance says something about how Bordeaux understands time.

The 1998 vintage was particularly successful on the Right Bank, where Merlot achieved exceptional ripeness and balance. More than twenty five years later, bottles like this increasingly reveal the secondary complexity that makes mature Bordeaux so compelling: softened tannins, evolved aromatics, and the slow shift from fruit toward earth and cedar.