2018 Volnay Les Santenots-du-Milieu

Try to imagine Meursault without Dominique Lafon? Difficult, isn’t it? I hope that day does not pass for a long time, though this year’s visit marked the beginning of a new chapter as Lafon was flanked by his nephew Pierre, who has returned from working for a Chicago distributor to commence the real learning at the domaine, alongside Lafon’s daughter Léa. Discussing the future, he told me that they had not really decided how responsibilities would be split and the plan is for them to spend the first years working jointly in all areas of running the winery and let the division come naturally. Dominique Lafon was in typically irrepressible form, loquacious and candid as ever, with the odd sprinkling of expletives. I had no pressing appointment afterwards, enabling me to spend over three hours tasting through the 2018 and 2019 vintages, plus his most recent Mâconnais wines from 2019 and a random older bottle that I parsed away for a Cellar Favourite.

Back to the main topic – the 2018 and 2019 vintages. “It was an early bud break,” Lafon explained. “Or is that the normal now? There was an early flowering that was not that good and led to the shortfall in crop. It was not caused by the rain. Maybe it was too warm? There was not much disease pressure during the warm and dry summer, so it was easy in that respect. We started harvesting on 5 September and at that time it was warm and that makes it hard for the pickers. The end of the ripening happened very fast. There was more than 1% additional potential alcohol in four days in some places. It was go, go, go. We had to move. The challenge was to organize the cellar to handle the incoming fruit, though the short crop helped. We picked fast just as we have just done in 2020, where there was a big crop. We finished picking around 14 September, whilst the Mâconnais wines took around a fortnight to pick. The fermentation in Mâconnais was difficult because the sugars were slow to finish whereas it was much smoother in Meursault. The 2019s in both Mâconnais and Meursault have more alcohol than in 2018, between 13.5° and 13.8° though nothing over 14.0°. It was not as hot as in 2018 but it was shortness of the crop that led to the concentration. The acidity levels are normal with pH around 3.2 to 3.5. The average yield in the Mâconnais was 40-45hl/ha compared to 60hl/ha in 2018, whilst in Meursault it was around 40hl/ha, though 25-30hl/ha for the reds. The 2019 reds are racked but not sulphured, the 2018 reds were bottled in late spring as I thought they could take a slightly longer ageing.”

This was an excellent set of wines from Dominique Lafon, who I would aver is currently making the best wines of a long career. The 2018 and 2019 vintages are closely matched in quality and arguing one set is superior is not easy, not least because one is comparing unfinished and finished wines. One thing I did take away was the quality of Lafon’s Meursault Porusots that shines in both vintages. We also discussed the reds at length. My palate errs towards the Champans and Clos des Chêne that tend to be more classically styled, whilst perhaps the more celebrated Santenots-du-Milieu is higher-toned with darker fruit and more obvious floral aromatics. I absolutely adored the Volnay 2019s that seemed to combine elegance and power to great effect. Among the range of Meursault Premier Crus, the Les Perrières is regal, the Les Charmes taking silver medal. Perhaps most interesting and an augury of things to come is the 2019 Montrachet, the last vintage to be matured in new oak for its entire élevage, the 2020 was racked into 50% new and 50% used oak. It will be fascinating to see the results and whether it will be continued. At the other end of the spectrum, I tasted nearly all of the Mâconnais wines under Les Hériters des Comtes Lafon and these represent outstanding value. Lafon remarked that even though they are higher in alcohol, they feel fresher. I plan a more in-depth report on the region in 2021 but since these wines are entering the market and tend to be consumed young, I include them here.

Dominique Lafon was a little tardy for our 2pm rendezvous. When he finally materialized he told me that he had been at the police station as his car had been stolen at lunchtime. I presume that the robbers were hoping there were a few bottles of Montrachet on the back seat. Once he had gathered himself, we set upon a fairly comprehensive tasting that included his Mâconnais, bottled at the end of July and end of August, as small compensation for being unable to cover the region this year, with several bottled 2017s. "The 2017 Volnays were bottled in early Spring but they were naturally clear. I do not like the effect of filtration and so none of them were filtered. The 2018 reds were cropped at 35-45hl/ha. I used 3gm/L of SO2 before Christmas and kept the wines at 23gm/L over the summer, adding 1gm before summer. The wines have not been racked, which is what we usually do if there is no reduction. The 2018 whites were harvested from 24 August."