Tasted with Dominique Lafon at the Château de Bligny, 23 October 2023.
Domaine Dominique Lafon
Château de Bligny
14 Grande rue
21200 Bligny-lès-Beaune
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More reports for Dominique Lafon.
Dominique on 2023:
“Yes it was a generous vintage. I’ve an average of 35 hl/ha over the last years but got 50 for the reds! The reds were still borderline ripe for a very long time. But there was a good window but not a lot more than 40 hl/ha for the whites.”
Dominique on 2022:
“2022 went very well. Here its not a big red harvest – though it’s not small either – 35-40 hl/ha! I find the best wines in hot years are those made with whole-clusters, so that’s what I did in 22 and I like the result! The harmony and the class is much higher than in 2017… Right now, I think it’s much easier to make a good chardonnay than a pinot with the current hot vintages…”
Note, the vineyard work and the harvesting for the majority of these wines is done by the team of Comtes Lafon.
The wines…
Always a pleasure to taste here – and for both colours too. I foolishly didn’t follow-up on an order for some 2021s fast enough – the demand is unsurprisingly high here.
Dominique is planning a Springtime bottling for the reds and also a part of the whites – the Bourgognes and the Champsgains before Xmas – the rest in the Spring …
From the villages part of Les Lurets, the bottom of the hill, late-ripening here – old vines.
A large nose, but fresh and complex. Elegant despite the concentration – really silky – ooh thats a top villages!
2022 Beaune 1er Epenottes
These vines were once with Drouhin and are organic
An even larger nose, darkly fruited but with nothing in excess. Super finishing scale – a wine that makes a super impression.
2022 Volnay 1er Lurets
Under Champans, the top part of Lurets, near Robardelles. There was once a plan to group everything here under one name, but somebody refused.
More direct, more floral. More fluid too – it’s structural wine but in the best, more architectural, sense. Broad, mineral and absolutely delicious.
Les Whites
All these whites are on their lees after the summer racking:
2022 Bourgogne Aligoté
The first vintage for this was 2018 – a contract with a ‘serious producer’ of Volnay…
Round but floral and precise aromatics. Beautifully shaped properly structured and absolutely delicious.
2022 Bourgogne Blanc
From 70-year-old vines near Meursault Limozin, plus Femelottes in Puligny – trying to get this latter parcel classified as villages. Work done by the Comtes Lafon team, there’s no certification, but the work is the same. Demi-muids and barrels for elevage, the last with tank elevage.
Bright and wide – it’s an incisive citrus start. Rounder than the nose suggests but fine shaped and very long. Yum!
High vines.
Tighter – ‘tauter’ too – a fine if narrow width of focus. Open, melting, juicy – here’s a beauty – bravo PV!
From the hill near Narvaux – Charmes de Narvaux.
Class – he knows what a good Meursault should be Like! Structured but with 1 mm of padding – concentrated too but not heavy. I’d wait for this wine while drinking your 21s!
0.5 hectares – high and low vines.
Fresher and more floral nose. More chiselled, more mineral – beautiful finishing citrus complexity really intense – bravo
2022 Puligmy-Montrachet 1er Champsgains
Early bottling only because the volume of just over 300 litres ‘makes life diffcult once it’s in a tank with a mobile seal.’
Calm but wide, complex too. In the mouth wide and intense. Super finishing bitters… top! What an excellent wine!!