Volnay Santenots du Milieu 1er cru 2007 Domaines des Comtes Lafon

Avis professionnels

Robert Parker (91)

Intense aromas and flavors of cassis and creme de mure are complemented by mace and espresso in a Lafon 2007 Volnay Santenots du Milieu whose almost liqueur-like sense of richness carries through to a strong finish, while not precluding a sense of fresh fruit vivacity that is reinforced by pungent brown spices. This fine representative of its vintage and site should be worth cellaring for 5-7 years.

Dominique Lafon’s vineyards were hit hard by the July, 2008 hail, with his largest site – Santenots du Milieu – worst hit, and reduced in production by two-thirds, all of which he bottled together, rather than (as more usually) declassifying the young vines portion to village Volnay. Crop loss was due to dehydration as well, a factor compounded by late harvest. (“But before October,” relates Lafon, “the fruit simply was not ripe.”) Lafon’s chagrin – coming on the heels of two challenging vintages for Pinot – was more than assuaged, though, by the superb quality of his Meursaults in both 2007 and 2008 (on which I shall report soon in these pages).

BOW (8)