1999 Lafon-Rochet

Like a number of his colleagues in the Medoc, technical director Bernard Franc describes the 2000 vintage as denser and more opulent, and the 2001s as more classic and elegant. "We could have had problems if the crop had been large," Franc noted, "but all of our work in the vines, including a double effeuillage [leaf-pulling on both sides of the vines], really paid off." Yields in 2001 were 43 hectoliters per hectare, down from 55 in 2000, with the old cabernet franc vines producing just 33 h/h. Lafon-Rochet has carried out a number of small but crucial improvements here in the last few years. A more careful triage was conducted in 2001. Beginning with 2001, the estate has also done smaller-volume vinifications, with better control of temperature. In the estate's new barrel cellar, all the merlot now goes through malolactic fermentation in new barriques The result of all this work is that Lafon-Rochet was one of a handful of Medoc wines that appears to have outperformed its 2000 in 2001.

Lafon-Rochet is finishing up a new first-year barrel cellar that will allow the chateau to put most of its merlot and old-vines cabernet through malolactic fermentation in barriques Guy Tesseron told me his 2000, while a very successful wine, is not in the class of the '96 or the '90, and didn't begin with the same high sugar levels of those two earlier years. On my early-morning visit here in late March, I enjoyed a spectacular rainbow against a black sky on my way in, and was pelted with hail on my way out.

This estate's '99 will consist of 60% merlot and 40% cabernet (including about 5% franc), the opposite of the ratio actually planted, as only the older cabernet vines will go into the grand vin. Maceration of merlot was gentle, but there was more extraction from the old cabernet fruit. An expansion of the cellar in time for the 2000 harvest will enable Lafon-Rochet to do the malolactic fermentation of its cabernet in barrel; previously this practice was limited to the merlot. Both the '99 and '98 are aging in about 50% new oak, down slightly from '97.