dominique lafon
Dominique Lafon
Meursault
Côte de beaune - Côte d’or - burgundy
Story…
Started in 2008 as a separate business from the family domaine, Domaine des Comtes Lafon. Although he uses nearly all estate fruit and only rare vintages buys fruit, the label is set up as a négociant business. The wines are produced, aged and bottled at Château de Bligny where he operates a custom crush facility for several small-scale winemakers in the area. This essentially complete separation from his family estate is exactly what he was after when he established the label. This allows him to experiment more and build off of what he learns without the concern of upholding the standards and expectations that he has created and continued at the family estate.
Farming & Philosophy…
Farming and philosophy mirror the family estate for the most part. He purchases very little fruit, all of the fruit that comes from the family holdings are all farmed biodynamically.
In the cellar may be where the most differences lie between his wines bottled under the Comtes Lafon label and his personal label. Fermentation are done is roughly the same manor, with whole cluster pressing to temperature controlled tank. When it comes to oak usage, the wines under his personal label tend to see less new oak overall; mostly in the 25-35% range for new oak barrels on all the cuvées.
vineyards…
Around 4.5 hectares of vineyards are dedicated to the Dominique Lafon label from his family holdings. Not surprisingly most of which lie in Meursault along with sites in Puligny-Montrachet, Volnay, & Beaune.
Meursault “Les Grandes Coutures”
.6 hectare plot with roughly 20-50 year old vines | used for the Bourgogne Blanc bottling
Meursault “Narvaux”
.50 hectares between 2 plots | one plot is around 25 years old, the other is around 50 years old
Puligny-Montrachet “Les Femelottes”
a 1.2 hectare plot with roughly 20-50 year old vines | used for the Bourgogne Blanc bottling
Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru “Champ Gain”
a .25 hectare plot with vines averaging 50+ years in age | located near the top of the hillside so relatively high altitude
Beaune Premier Cru “Epenottes”
a roughly .33 hectare plot located in the lower part of the hill
Beaune Premier Cru “Grèves”
one of the few wines produced from purchased fruit | Dominique buys about 1/3 of the harvest from every year
Beaune Premier Cru “Vignes Franches”
the other site where Dominique purchases fruit from consistently | he buys all the fruit from one entire parcel, about 1.3 hectares in size | “Franches” & “Grèves” are owned and farmed by the person
