With the turn of the new millennium creeping up nearly 20 years ago, Dominique Lafon of Domaine Comtes Lafon had a nagging itch to start something new. Like many Côte de Beaune contemporaries (e.g. Domaine Leflaive), he saw great potential in the Mâconnais region, with its comparable terroir and affordable real estate, and pulled the trigger in 1999. Since then, the Lafons have proactively purchased vineyard parcels throughout the Mâcon, while strictly focusing on organic and biodynamic practices.
This is our first offering from their hilltop site “Les Maranches” in the village of Mâcon-Uchizy and it’s an absolutely top-notch expression of how serious Chardonnay can be from this region. In addition, this old-vine Chardonnay is a sub-variety (the musqué ‘clone’) that produces highly perfumed grapes, something you’ll immediately notice once popping the cork. Simply put, it’s a singular white Burgundy with unfolding layers of perfume and fruit alongside a charged level of tension on the palate. This should be studied as the paragon of value offerings for all high-end producers in Burgundy. It showcases everything you’d find in triple-digit wines: natural farming, meticulous winemaking, and judicious oak aging. The true magic of this wine will be seen in 5-7 years, so if you are thoughtfully curating a cellar, this is a wine to purchase by the case and drink over many years.
Without any previous winemakers in the family, Dominique Lafon had to learn everything from scratch, often to the amusement of neighboring vintners. Now, Lafon is a world-renowned vigneron, praised not only for his rich, focused Chardonnays from Meursault and Montrachet, but for his integral part in shifting farming practices throughout the Cote d’Or. At a young age, he championed a group of innovative winemakers to employ organic and biodynamic viticulture in Burgundy, convincing even the most traditional houses to stop using chemicals and pesticides. Although Dominique Lafon isn’t necessarily getting his hands stained these days, he closely supervises the winemaking process that he’s placed in the adept hands of Caroline Gon.
The Mâconnais gets a higher amount of sunshine in the south and berries are gifted with a ripeness atypical to Burgundy’s northern reaches. Still, Mâcon-Uchizy is one of Mâcon’s most northern villages (closer to Côte d’Or) and Lafon’s holdings on the hilltop lieu-dit of “Les Maranches” allow for ripeness while maintaining ideal levels of acidity. This clay-limestone, south-facing plot was planted to a highly aromatic Chardonnay clone in both 1977 and 1999 so vines are roughly 20 and 40 years of age. Lafon owns nearly five acres up here and for today’s bottling two parcels were selected and blended together. Farming was done through Certified Organic and biodynamic practices and all grapes were harvested by hand. Fermentation was triggered with indigenous yeast in large oak foudres and after eight months of aging, the wine was once racked before bottling.
In the glass, the wine displays a brilliant straw-yellow core with silver reflections and glints of green along the rim. The nose, while not as ripe and exotic as 2015, still oozes with highly perfumed aromatics and pure fruit. You’ll find yellow apple skin, meyer lemon, white peach pit, green pineapple core, fresh white flowers, and slight brine. This wine is brimming with minerality so expect an added depth of oyster shell, crushed stone, and salinity. A pure Chardonnay expression, it delivers a wonderfully fresh palate full of laser sharp, yet rounded precision. Though coming in at medium bodied, the wine is no lightweight; intense fruit and minerality push it into a fuller mouthfeel and provides a long lasting finish. This 2016 certainly has the structure to age gracefully over the next 5-7 years, though we thoroughly enjoyed it after a bit of air. I recommend pulling the cork an hour or two prior to consuming or allowing a 30-45 minute decant before enjoying in Burgundy stems. Pair this next to an easily prepared pan-fried sole in a citrus-butter sauce in order to marry the fresh fruit and acidic cut of Lafon’s “Les Maranches.” Cheers!
