Pomerol Royalty Château Lafleur Will No Longer Bottle Its Wines As Pomerol or Bordeaux

Château Lafleur will no longer be making Pomerol or Bordeaux wines. It seems preposterous but that was the announcement that came from the estate last week via a letter to ‘distribution friends and the media’ from owners the Guinaudeau family. I talked about the changing landscape of Bordeaux in my piece on Léoville-Barton here, and I could have not asked for a more succint demonstration of that than this.

It is not hard to parse what the reasons are behind this seismic decision from one of Pomerol’s most respected names. They pull no punches in their letter:

“Changes that are crucial if we wish to continue producing the Lafleur wines we dearly love; wines of great terroirs and of noble ancient genetics, crafted to embody the essence and spirit of Lafleur, year-in, year-out.

Climate is changing fast and hard, that much is clear. The vintages 2015, 2019, and above all 2022, were all strong evidence of that. 2025 goes a step further. We must think, readapt, act.

Our decision-making and the resulting practices are in fact evolving much faster than what is authorised in our Appellations of Origine system.

Consequently, while maintaining the utmost respect for our fellow producers and the appellations of Pomerol and Bordeaux, we have decided to cease adhering to the appellations of Pomerol and Bordeaux beginning with the 2025 vintage.

The six wines of Société Civile du Château Lafleur will be designated as Vin de France beginning with the 2025 vintage.”

We here in Britain have just experienced our hottest summer on record, and our winemakers are licking their lips at the potential of the 2025 crop, with picking at many estates about to start two weeks earlier than usual, but here in Britain we do not have the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée system governing our viticulture.

These are strict rules that growers must follow to qualify to be able call their wines the prestigious names of the historic regions they are making wine in. Most obviously they dictate the grape varieties permitted to be grown, but they also govern other factors like minimum sugar levels at harvest for the grapes, planting density of the vines and the use of irrigation.

Lafleur have already broken those rules during the 2025 growing season. There are often parallels in Bordeaux’s weather patterns to ours in the South-West, and in 2025 like us they experienced miniscule rainfall during the Spring before multiple heatwaves in June. Heavy rain at Easter did little to assuage the hydric stress, and the low rainfall continued until August the 20th. Lafleur’s response was to reduce the height of the canopy to reduce water loss by the vine through transpiration, increase the density of the canopy to better shade the fruit from the fierce sun, and, crucially, beginning to irrigate the vines by mid-June.

That last act means they can no longer call their wines Pomerol or Bordeaux, instead they will call their wines Vin de France.

They are not the first to eschew local regulations, but they are, and correct me if I am wrong, the first to do so as a reaction to climatic conditions. In the past it has been done for greater creative freedom, to be able to express the terroir in new ways through the use of banned grape varieties, the most famous example being the Super Tuscans, for years labelled as humble Vino Tavolas.

But here this is not about re-interpreting Pomerol. Instead, as Guinaudeaus put it, they must change to remain the same. An act of rebellion born of necessity, casting off a regulatory straight-jacket that is not reacting quickly enough to shifting paradigms on the ground.

It is hard not to over-state the huge ramifications of this decision by Lafleur. Pomerol is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world: it is the smallest of Bordeaux’s major wine regions, with only 800 hectares under vine. The average size of a Pomerol estate is a mere 6 hectares. This boutique nature means prices for Pomerol are always high, and in Pétrus and Le Pin it boasts two of the most expensive wines in the world. And Lafleur is not far behind.

It draws into sharp focus the role of the appellation system. There to protect the historical essence and style of France’s best wines, it is clearly struggling to do so in the face of rapidly changing climatic conditions. Experimental new grapes have been approved for use in the Bordeaux, better equipped to deal with the extremes of heat and drought that are becoming commonplace, but they are for lesser appellations than Pomerol.

The question remains how far-reaching this move by Lafleur will be. It feels unlikely that they will have been the only ones to react to conditions in 2025 in this way, so they may be the first in a house of cards. Other producers will be watching carefully how the market reacts: with 2025 likely to be, despite the challenges, a very good Bordeaux vintage, the first bottling of Lafleur as a Vin de France is bound to excite buyers.

It will be also be interesting to see how the INAO reacts in turn. Liber Pater has done the same in Graves, but it lacks the gravitas of Lafleur’s move, and done for different reasons. A reaction will be needed, else they risk letting a trickle become a flood.

Written by A James Cole