2015 Meursault Les Porusots 1er Cru

Dominique Lafon made just one-third of a normal white wine crop in 2016 and for that reason purchased no new oak barrels for these wines. He views 2016 as "charming and pleasant--a classic seductive vintage with a lightness, but not as serious as 2015." Although the pHs are a bit higher in 2016 than in the previous year, Lafon noted that it's too early to say whether the 2016s are more fragile wines. "They have less acidity but also less body; they have a different balance but an attractive balance. They remind me of the 2000s in their charm. They have nothing in excess." The '16s finished their malos early and had been sulfited by the time of my visit, and Lafon was considering racking some of them into tanks rather than back into barrels.

Lafon had only started bottling his 2015s the week before my visit, so I have provided a second set of notes on a number of these wines (the ‘15s had been moved into tanks in January, on their fine lees). Lafon told me that the ‘15s had become leaner in a positive way with aging, as fining has brought greater precision, and were now sharper in their fruit profile than they were a year ago. He thinks they will be strong agers—“but not the wines picked at 14.5%.” He noted that the 2003 vintage was very hot and early but that the wines are aging very well. To make his point, he opened a bottle of the ’03 Charmes, which was still a pale yellow-gold and had not changed much in color over the past ten years. It’s a hugely ripe, round, winter style of wine with a classic Meursault oatmeal element (Lafon suggested pairing it with chicken in a wine and cream sauce) and incredible depth of texture. Its slight warmth was buffered by its strong impression of sweetness and the wine was still remarkably fresh. I rated it 93 points.

Dominique Lafon considers 2015 to be a great vintage for Burgundy’s red wines “and nice and appealing for the whites. They will never have the refinement of the ‘14s but they’re not heavy.” The Chardonnay grapes were very ripe but none of his parcels was over 13.5%, as Lafon started harvesting on August 27. Acidity levels were healthy, he added. Some of the 2015s finished their malolactic fermentations earlier than usual and were sulfited last November, but Lafon had a few of his ‘15s in stainless steel tanks at the beginning of June to get the malos to finish.

Like many of his colleagues on the Côte de Beaune, Lafon has taken a variety of measures in recent years to prevent premature oxidation of his wines. He is seeking to bottle "more backward" wines by working more reductively, racking his wines into stainless steel tanks earlier, rather than simply transferring them to another set of barrels. He's also racking without exposure to air and keeping more CO2 in the wines. His overall objective is "to control the amount of dissolved oxygen in the wines at every step," he told me, adding that his wines now go into bottle with just one part per million. High levels of dissolved oxygen at the time of bottling can quickly absorb free sulfur and leave the wines vulnerable to oxidation. Incidentally, Lafon has been using all DIAM corks since 2013, having recently adopted the new, extra-thick and long DIAM 30s for his top bottlings.