2000 Montrachet Grand Cru

Dominique Lafon, always articulate when describing the nature of new vintages, describes his young 2001s as bigger and rounder than his 2000s, from riper grapes that were lower in acidity. But the 2000s have more elegant fruit," he adds, making it clear that, for the moment at least, he prefers the style of the earlier vintage. Lafon left his 2000s on their lees until December of 2001, and told me he now allows his wines to settle in tank for two or three weeks prior to the bottling in order to get more clarity in the finished wines.

Dominique Lafon, who describes '99 as an easy vintage, told me "there never were any odd aromas, and the wines have always been clear and crisp and precise. They're elegant and never heavy." Lafon left the '99s on their lees for a long time, but with minimal stirring. The 2000s were not quite as clear as the '99s and will get racked earlier. "They've tended to be more reductive and thus I've done more batonnage It actually a better vintage on paper than '99, with excellent intensity and strong acidity. And the young vines actually gave much more sugar in 2000 than in 1999." Even though Lafon made about 10% less wine than in the previous year, there will be more Charmes, since a higher percentage of the young-vines juice will be strong enough to make it into the final blend. In contrast to many of his fellow growers in Meursault, Lafon benefitted by beginning to pick his chardonnay several days after the official start of the harvest.