1999 | Domaine des Comtes Lafon | Volnay Santenots du Milieu Premier Cru (Magnum)

Tannic, but here is a modern-style Pinot--dark in color, extracted, showing masses of fruit and tannins, with beautiful focus on black and red fruits and spicy notes.

Reviews:

• Vinous: Very healthy dark color with just a hint of browning at the edge. Expressive aromas of black cherry, dark berries and chocolate. Seriously sweet and thick but in a distinctly powerful style, conveying a medicinal quality to its very ripe plum, dark cherry and mint flavors. The big tannins saturate the mouth and teeth. There's certainly no rush to drink this--and give it some time in a decanter if you decide to try it soon. "This was a time when we made very dense wines," said Dominique Lafon. "There wasn't an understanding of elegant wines in Burgundy then. And there was also more extraction." He went on: "This wine does not have the same tannins as the 2015 and 2016. In 1999 we punched down the cap every day, but in recent vintages we're only doing a total of three pigeages.

• Burghound: While the Clos des Chênes performed as expected relative to the cask sample, the final Santenots was even better than the cask sample. Wonderfully expressive with massive amounts of spicy black fruit and seductive flavors; the wine has an enormous amount of underlying material and is incredibly complex. But it's the length that defines this wine as it simply goes on and on. It's not hard to see why Lafon believes this is one of the finest wines ever produced at the Domaine. Simply magnificent.

Producer Information

Domaine des Comtes Lafon is a wine producer in Burgundy making some of the most lauded (and highly priced) white wines from Chardonnay in the region. It is located in Meursault in the Côte de Beaune subregion, but has vineyards in three other villages: Chassagne-Montrachet, Volnay and Monthélie. Comtes Lafon's house and cellar were built in 1869 by the Boch family, but its reputation as a winery was most heavily influenced by Jules Lafon, who married Marie Boch in 1894. Lafon bought many of the significant premier cru plots in Meursault and Volnay, and in 1919, parcels in the grand cru Le Montrachet vineyard. Domaine des Comtes Lafon saw an extended period of sharecropping after Jules Lafon's death and the future of the estate became uncertain. It was Jules' grandson René Lafon who took an interest in the winery and fought to stop the division of the vineyards – a move that secured the future of the domaine. Despite René's intervention, many of the lease agreements with the sharecroppers remained in place for decades. Comtes Lafon was making highly regarded whites in many vintages but without consistency. It wasn't until René's son, Dominique, facilitated the end of the sharecropping agreements in the late 1980s and early '90s that Domaine des Comtes Lafon was able to reach its full potential. In 1995, it adopted organic practices and since 1998 has been entirely biodynamic. Comte Lafon's stand-out wine is its single grand cru Montrachet, which has consistently been listed as one of the most expensive wines in the world. The domaine also has a range of premier cru white and red wines and while the whites have always been highly regarded, its red wines have gained new recognition for their quality in more recent vintages. In 1999 Comtes Lafon expanded into the Mâcon in southern Burgundy with a second label: Les Héritiers du Comtes Lafon.

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