Tasted in Meursault with Lé Lafon, 06 December 2023.
Domaine des Comtes Lafon
5 Rue Pierre Joigneaux
21190 Meursault
Tel: +33 3 80 21 22 17
www.comtes-lafon.fr
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More reports with Domaine des Comtes Lafon.
Léa on 2023 & 2022
“Both 22 and 23 are beautiful – we cant really complain! We have rackings underway right now – some done, some not. In the vines if it goes wrong, it goes wrong in all the vineyards – but 2022 was a good year, hot and dry in the summer of course but with no particular problems – and early start, 24 Aug–3rd Sept for the picking.”
The wines…
Extravagant, beautiful reds and great whites. I always start with considerable expectations at this domaine – and in 2022 – they have been fulfilled. Bravo!
First reds will be bottled, from the end of January, then the whites, the first of which will be from mid-February:
2022 Monthelie 1er Duresses
1.05 hectares. 30 years ago it hardly ripened here but even in 21 not a problem…
Nice colour depth. The nose of direct, darker, slightly glossy, fruit. Broad and rather generous – silky too – the line of flavour is long and delicious. A beauty!
We didn’t taste the Volnay villages – it’s anyway, usually, declassified 1er cru from Santenots…
2022 Volnay 1er Clos des Chênes
Vines up on high… Racked 1 hour – ‘we did a racking for the first time for a long time just after the summer for the reds.’
Wide, more airy dark fruit perfume once again. More direct, supple, silky wine – with a beautiful finishing width of flavour with a tiny extra herb complexity.
2022 Volnay 1er Champans
Two-thirds of the vines are 100-years-old.
An extra width of complexity – fresh and perfumed fruit here. More structured and direct in the mouth – really intense – some slightly creamy finishing notes – very long. Always a super wine here!
2022 Volnay 1er Santenots du Milieu
This is a large 3.5 ha plot. A normal result would be 50 barrels.
A calmer nose but really wide, a faint tobacco impression too. More elegant structure after the Champans – but similarly intense to finish. That’s a broad and impressive finish – these reds showing quite extravagantly, indeed beautifully.
Les Whites…
This from Crotots, En la Barre, Baronne and Luraule – a wine of assembly – fined today, racked in January
Ooh – that’s pure and direct – a beautiful invitation. Open, classy, mineral wine – slightly direct, beautifully textured – top villages. A large rolling wave of a finish. Yes!
The vines here now average about 70 years old.
A smaller but more perfumed nose. The wine also showing a little more structure – melting with flavour at the edges – the finish sizzles with electric flavour – properly great finishing – considering this has been recently racked this is a great showing!
0.5 hectare. Of-course, this would be 1er cru if they bottled with the name Plures, before AOC the area was called Desirée but have used at the domaine since the 1800s but everyone else started to use Plures after AOC – in 1973 the father of Dominique labelled it as a 1er cru but the douane said that vineyard didn’t exist so he had to remove the 1er from the label.
More open aromas – this nose reminds of the finish of the Barre – electric – really an invitation. Fuller, super width with vibrant finishing flavour – another really top finish – great.
2022 Puligny-Montrachet
First vintage – rented not a grape contract. ‘Champs Croyons – we might be the only one with this’
A tighter nose – there’s power but it’s not so open. Super, silky width, a small generosity of flavour and with a long beam of finishing flavour. A super debut!
2022 Puligny-Montrachet Charmes
Although only just racked this seems more open and direct than the previous, very slightly floral too. Larger scale in the mouth – a broad finishing intensity too – that’s really lovely here – with a great finish for a villages.
2022 Meursault 1er Bouchères
Only since 2011 here, previously with domaine Manuel, shared with JM Roulot. The first vines to be harvested in most years.
A little more vertical with more overt higher tones – super fresh higher tones. Large scale, more concentration. Really more considered but slowly leaching long flavours in the finish – calmer but with fine presence – more of everything except a bit of finishing energy.
2022 Meursault 1er Goutte d’Or
Finer, wider aromas – that’s a great nose. Concentrated but fluid – long, and holding a very impressive finishing line of flavour – that’s showing really well!
‘This is the transition between northern and southern 1ers of Meursault.’ Later harvesting – ‘but you still have to go very quickly when it’s ready…’
The airiness and precision of the Gouttes but more linear rather than wide. An attractive faint reducion and width to these flavours – they melt over the palate in super style then hold a vibrant finish that is wide and just doesn’t seem to end – great Porusots!
Less impact but what a finesse of aroma. Lots of CO2 in this today – but still a flavour profile and open architecture that melts over the palate – comforting but still with energy. Then finshing with waves of flavour that just keep coming – another beauty and no less long then that brilliant Porusots…
Old vines – 99-years-old. This one of the few still in barrel.
Silky and fine nose – slowly growing in width. Quite mineral, with mobile flavour depsite obvious concentration. Then a firework goes off with the finishing flavours – ooh that’s a great finish – sustained and with volume too – this is my new favourite!
Airy and more direct – mineral for sure. The palate also more direct, the flavours flooding the palate as they melt. A wine that stays true to itself – always direct and superbly long – yes!
Less open top notes but there’s a crystalline width of riper citrus in support. Hmm, fluid in style, some extra ripeness, not an overly generous wine – but one that seems to get wider and wider and still balances its generosity with energy. Another hauntingly long finish – top wine!