2009 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru

Dominique Lafon counts 2009 among his favorite white wine vintages, and he considers these wines to be better than the reds from the same year. In contract, in 2010 he prefers the reds to the whites. Lafon believes the short crop in 2010 allowed the wines to retain more elegance than the 2008s. In fact, he also told me that he prefers his 2007 whites to his 2008s "for purity." Like a number of his colleagues, Lafon has been making more use of fining in recent years. "Casein takes out some of the oxidized phenolics," he told me, admitting that his wines from the period in which he did less fining (1996 through 2002) may not be aging as well. (Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; also a Daniel Johnnes Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)

Dominique Lafon's 2009s are just as stunning from bottle as they were when I tasted them in cask earlier this year. Lafon is one of the most thoughtful growers in Burgundy. Along with a group of his colleagues, Lafon is among the producers who has basically re-examined every aspect of the way he makes wine in response to the problem of premature oxidation. Today's wines spend more time on their lees, but that is just one of many changes that have taken place here over the least few years. Except as noted, I tasted the 2009s from bottle. The 2009 Charmes, Perrières and Montrachet were bottled in May, 2011. I also tasted all of the 2010s from barrel. The Meursault, Clos de la Barre and Goutte d'Or weren't showing well, while the Meursault premier crus and the Montrachet were all sublime.

Dominique Lafon was one of several producers who had me taste 2008s before 2009s, even if a few wines from the earlier vintage had not yet been bottled. He describes the 2008s as "weightier than the 2007s but with similar acid lift. The wines have fleshy middles but share the citrus and mineral finishes of the 2007s." Since 2006 Lafon has been working with more of the lees (he now brings seven or eight liters of lees into the barrels for aging) and he believes this helps his wines ferment to dryness, results in a bit more reduction, and plays a role in preventing oxidation. Lafon started harvesting on September 7 in 2009, pointing out that there had been some rainfall three days before that. He believes that 2009 is a great year for whites and very good for reds: "Like most of our neighbors, we picked chardonnay first and then pinot. This was good for chardonnay but not so good for pinot." Nowadays Lafon avoids stirring the lees, except when the wines are getting too reduced. On the subject of evolution of his wines, Lafon admitted to me that due to the big crop in 1999, he had a shortage of barrels, and therefore got rid of more of the bourbes simply for space reasons. This raised the odds of premature oxidation in these wines. The 2000s here, in contrast, are generally in fine form, with little sign of premox. I tasted a bottle of 2002 Charmes with Lafon. It showed a distinct baked bread and toffee character but also was slightly reduced. It was clearly in an awkward phase: tasters predisposed toward finding premature oxidation might have tossed this one but I would have liked the chance to follow it. It certainly spread out to saturate the palate. And a bottle of the 1994 Charmes was drinking perfectly but was in no danger of going over the hill anytime soon.(Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; also a Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)