In order to establish the date of birth of the Domaine des Comtes Lafon it is necessary to go back, to 22 January 1894, when an administrative accountant of the south-west of France, Jules Joseph Barthélémy Lafon, married the daughter of a family of Meursault wine merchants, Marie Bloch. Marie inherited some vineyards in that area of the Côte de Beaune, while Jules was engaged in his career as a state administrator, culminating in the 1920s with his election as mayor of Meursault. Finally, in 1931, Jules decided to abandon his institutional duties to devote himself to his own vineyards, increased with to the acquisition of other parcels in Meursault, Montrachet, and Volnay.
After Jules’ death it was opened the practice of hereditary succession, which were not particularly lucky, with the heirs who disinterested in wine production, selling many lands owned, and arriving at the hypothesis of getting rid of the entire Domaine. It was not until 1956 that a real rebirth could be witnessed thanks to the work of René Lafon who, after leaving Paris, devoted his body and soul to the revival of the winery and to the replanting of most of the vineyards. He was succeeded by Dominique Lafon who, from 1984 to the present day, has expanded the Domaine to reach 16.3 hectares of current property.
Among the wines produced by this small domaine we find the Meursault Clos de la Barre, a Monopole wine that comes from a vineyard of 2 hectares and 12 are fenced by walls, in the heart of the appellation. The soil extends over a low-depth slope, below which there is a hard limestone subsoil, planted with vines between 50 and 25 years old. Once harvested, its grapes are pressed very slowly, to gently extract the juice, and then cooled to a temperature of 12 ºC to facilitate the decanting process. The must is poured into new or second-pass barriques where the spontaneous alcoholic fermentation takes place, thanks to indigenous yeasts, followed by malolactic fermentation (in January) at the natural temperature of the cellar (between 22 and 24 ). After about another 6 months, in July, the wine is poured twice in older barriques and left to rest in the cooler part of the cellar for 18 months, from which it will then be assembled in vats and, when the tasting will say that the wine is ready, bottled and placed on the market.
The 2012 vintage has a straw-yellow color that tends to golden, with an olfactory range that opens on notes of dried apricot, peach in syrup, toasted hazelnut and chamomile, followed by maple syrup, lemon tart, custard and chlorophyll, with final echoes of vanilla, carpentry and wet chalk. The palate has a creamy attack with an undertone in which the citric acidity alternates with the iodine minerality; all enriched by the return of the overripe fruit and the spices that accompany the sip to an almost endless closing.
Rating: 93/100
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