1998 Volnay Santenots 1er Cru

"The best reds I've ever made and among the best whites," says Dominique Lafon of his '99s. The crop here was not huge, adds Lafon, and the wines have intensity and freshness of flavor and great elegance, with rounder tannins than usual. As with the best '99s elsewhere in Burgundy, they simply cannot be marked down for the higher yields of this vintage. Lafon says he is now letting the grapes do more of the work: the length of the cuvaison in '99 was similar to past years, but Lafon did fewer pigeages per day extending over a longer period. I tasted the '96 and '95 Volnay Santenots after the '99 and '98. All four are outstanding wines, but the two best were the '99 and the '96.

Gentle extraction of tannins was the key to handling the fruit in '98, says Dominique Lafon, whose destemmer was able to leave about 60%-70% whole berries. With a high percentage of whole berries, he explains, there's less contact with the seeds during the fermentation, and therefore less extraction of hard tannins. Lafon now does a longer maceration with less frequent pigeages or, put another way, he punches down the cap the same number of times over a period of three weeks as he used to do in two. The wines are typically moved into barrel with a bit of remaining sugar to finish their fermentation; keeping more gas with the wines helps to preserve their freshness. Lafon rates '98 and '97 as close in quality, but admits to preferring the vibrancy of the fruit in '98. Acidity levels were technically average in both vintages-but then acids here were healthy for '97, he notes. Lafon did not harvest until the Monday after the ban de vendange in '98, allowing the grapes to dry more thoroughly before starting. Rot-affected and sunburned grapes were eliminated in the vines and the final yields were extremely low, typically in the 18 hectoliters-per-hectare range. Grape sugars were excellent, yet the '98s, admits Lafon, don't quite offer the concentration one might expect from such a tiny crop.