Dominique Lafon - Volnay 2021

Add to Wish List

Pretty and fresh aromas display ripe plum, red and dark currant plus a top note of raspberry. There is good punch to the delicious middle weight flavors that exude notes of salinity and rusticity on the lingering finish. This is really quite good and while it's not an elegant rendition of the genre, I like the depth and persistence. Outstanding. –Allen Meadows, Burghound

Always searching for new challenges, Dominique Lafon started his own label - separate from the family domaine - in 2008 and currently works approximately 4.5 hectares in Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Volnay, and Beaune. Legally, he is considered a négociant but this is only because Dominique shares space with another winemaker. (Think of it as a custom crush facility, but in Burgundy.)

0.75 hectares
In the village-level lieu-dit of “Les Lurets”, a cool site

Dominique Lafon Description

For those who love great Burgundy, this winery needs no introduction. However, for those who want to learn more about the region’s great terroirs, tasting the wines of Domaine des Comtes Lafon is a true education. Jules Lafon migrated to Burgundy’s Côte d’Or from his native Tarn-et-Garonne in the southwest of France in 1887. His marriage in 1894 to Marie Boch, the daughter of a vigneron and négociant in Meursault, marked the official beginning of the domaine. A lawyer by trade, Jules managed the domaine, increased his wife’s family’s holdings and eventually became the mayor of Meursault in 1923. As mayor, Jules reintroduced the tradition of la Paulée, Meursault’s post-harvest feast celebrated every year during the weekend of the Hospices de Beaune wine auction in late November. If you go to Meursault, you’ll find a street named for him. Three generations later, in 1984, their great-grandson Dominique took over the domaine. Dominique’s father, René, had been working in Paris and had rented out most of his vineyards to other growers under the time-honored Burgundian tradition of métayage, or share-cropping. During this time, they produced small lots of wine under the Comtes Lafon label, using the juice that came from the vignerons as rent. As these long-term contracts were gradually ending, Dominique decided to reclaim the land and bottle the wine himself—a turning point for this historic estate. By 1993, all of the family’s 13.8 hectares were back under Dominique’s control, and he began slowly converting the vineyards to organic viticulture.

Inside Burgundy

On the pale side of crimson purple. A light pinot nose. Slightly gamey on the palate, but this is reduction rather than bacterial, an after effect of late malolactic. There is a sweet dark raspberry fruit behind, middleweight, light acidity and the tannins are integrated.