Strutting Peacocks: Raymond-Lafon 1979-2021

BY NEAL MARTIN | MARCH 26, 2025

When I was a kid, Mum would take me to Chalkwell Park to look at the animals. This zoo (in the loosest definition of that word) was comprised of several adjoining cages that, in those unenlightened times, imprisoned a lonely black bear and squawking monkeys. Thankfully, animal welfare officers shut down the operation at some point. The only one of God’s creatures that remained was a family of peacocks that strutted ‘round their pen, ostentatiously displaying their extravagant metallic blue/green plumage as if entering the Met Gala. Peacocks used to roam around Raymond-Lafon. They seemed perfectly at home at this Sauternes estate and imbued it with an exotic ambiance. None were strutting around when I made an overdue visit last year, and…I kind of missed them. Fortunately, the estate does continue to produce one of the region’s finest sweet wines.

There is a dearth of history about Raymond-Lafon. There is no official website, not even a mention in Clive Coates’ otherwise comprehensive “Grand Vin” bible. Raymond Lafon was a mayor in Sauternes who created the property in 1850, and since it preceded the official classification by just five years, the estate was omitted from the rankings. Henceforth, Raymond-Lafon’s wines have always flown under the radar. The estate passed into the hands of Lafon’s sons-in-law, Louis and André Pontallier, whose family name will be familiar to devotees of Château Margaux, as André Pontallier was the late Paul Pontallier’s grandfather.

Jean-Pierre Meslier opening the bottles, flanked by his young son