2005 Montrachet Grand Cru

Dominique Lafon was one of a handful of growers in Meursault who started their chardonnay harvest prior to the official starting date of September 18. Not only that, but he brought in the last of his chardonnay on September 20, before the grape skins began to degrade. "On Tuesday [September 19], the grapes were solid and dry in our picking baskets," Lafon explained, "but on Wednesday they came in wet and leaking, as the skins were starting to break down." While other growers on the Cote de Beaune might claim that the fruit started to deteriorate at a later date, few would argue with Lafon's description of what eventually happened to the chardonnay grapes in September of '06. The frequency of lees stirring in '06 depended on the needs of each cuvee, noted Lafon. But he also told me that he has made the decision to do less settling of the must beginning with the 2006 vintage. Because he will begin with more sediment in his wines, more frequent batonnages will normally be necessary to avoid problems of reduction. Lafon, whose wines develop slowly in his cold cellar, was more positive about his 2005s than he was last spring. "During the first year I thought the wines were simply too big," he said. "But as they age we're finding more minerality and more structure than we expected." (Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; also a Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)

The low crop level owing to a difficult flowering resulted in a number of weighty wines, said Dominique Lafon, who believed that the jury was still out on the quality of the new vintage."The white wines could turn out to be great, but they won't be showy young," he said."They have a lot of everything-structure, ripeness, power-but almost too much.The 1990 vintage was a bit like this in its youth."In contrast to many of his colleagues Lafon did more stirring of the lees in 2005 than in 2004, as he found that the 2005s were very reductive and needed the batonnage.Lafon told me that he, Thierry Matrot and Jean-Marc Roulot were the first growers in the village to start harvesting in 2005.Incidentally, Lafon is very high on his 2004 whites, which he currently likes better than the '05s "and maybe even the '02s." (Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; also a Daniel Johnnes Selection; imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)