Hi all,
I’d appreciate a second opinion on a Château Lafleur Saint-Jean Pomerol 2015 that I’m reviewing.
I know photos alone can’t prove authenticity, but I’m trying to understand whether anyone sees red flags, especially regarding the bottles and the wooden case.
A few things caught my attention:
- the bottles and labels look quite clean / new for the vintage
- there is no back label
- the wooden case also looks very new
- I saw an opened 2008 case online where the bottles seemed to have red tissue/textile wrapping, while this one does not
What the seller told me:
- they say the wooden case is original
- they bought it from a private collector near Cologne
- they say the case was unopened before they opened it to send me photos
- they also sent me a comparison photo of what they say is a similar 2013 box
From my own impression:
- the bottles look plausible overall
- the box is the part I’m less sure about, mostly because it looks unusually fresh
Main questions:
- Does anything here look obviously wrong?
- Is the absence of a back label a concern for this producer / vintage?
- Does the wooden case look like a genuine original case, or more like a later presentation / repacked box?
- Has anyone seen Lafleur Saint-Jean cases from this period and know whether they should have tissue around the bottles?
I’m attaching photos of:
- bottle front / label
- capsule / neck
- bottle base / punt
- multiple bottles in the case
- closed case
- opened case / inside dividers
- seller’s comparison photo of the 2013 box
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
by pg3155
4 Comments
Just returned from France with a few bottles of 90s Bordeaux that I picked up at Maison des Millesimes – I can tell you that in the case of this 1996 Croizet-Bages and 1997 Sociando Mallet, they look like they were bottled a few weeks ago. There are collectors out there who insist on maintaining their boxes & bottles in immaculate shape – I do my best at the same. So, re: perfect label & capsule condition – so I wouldn’t fret about these 2015s. Also, none of mine had back labels either – the back labels, IIRC, sometimes come from the importers adding them. So if the original owner purchased it in Europe like they claim, that checks out. That’s my two cents!
I’d expect 2015 bottle labels to be in perfect condition. Mine are.
If they weren’t, I’d be asking questions.
Not a wine that is valuable enough to counterfeit.
Not that it says anything about its authenticity, but the character spacing on the leaflet is OCD triggering… maybe something they introduce on purpose to make it a nightmare to replicate!