2004 Volnay Village

I practically had to walk to my visit here on a Saturday afternoon due to a half-marathon that had the streets blocked and the village of Meursault virtually cut off from the outside world (no one noticed) for a few hours. Fortunately, neither Dominique Lafon nor I were among the runners. Lafon continues to do less and less pigeage, as he's looking for a longer and softer maceration in search of more refined tannins. The malos went very slowly in 2005, and Lafon had moved some of the wine that had not yet finished its secondary fermentation into tank. But even the lots that had finished showed brisk acidity and sharp detail. Lafon told me that his 2005s have "almost the acidity of 1996 but with more fruit and more roundness." That would appear to be a perfect formula for slowly evolving, long-lived and complex wines. Although Lafon picked his chardonnay early-a good idea, by the way-he said his harvest dates for pinot noir were about average for Volnay. (Classic Wine Imports, Boston, MA; a Daniel Johnnes Selection, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines, Syosset, NY)

Dominique Lafon did very little pigeage for his Monthelie in 2004, because the tannins of this wine tend to turn hard quickly, and a bit less punching down than usual for his Volnays-basically one pigeage in the morning and one remontage in the afternoon. Some of the 2004 barrels were still finishing their malos in mid-November. Lafon did not acidify his 2003s, choosing instead to work with much less oxidative influence (in comparison, the 2004s got a bit more aeration than usual during the racking). The earlier set of wines was bottled with an edge of reduction (as well as a good bit of CO2), so impatient drinkers should be sure to decant their bottles prior to serving them.