2014 Volnay, Les Lurets, 1er Cru, Dominique Lafon, Burgundy
- Red
- Dry
- Medium Bodied
- Pinot Noir
Ready, but will improve
- Neal Martin MW
- 90/100
Product: 20148014072
Description
This Premier Cru Volnay displays vibrant purple fruit with a touch of wood. There is impressive weight to this and no signs of post-hail stress. The fruit is mouth-filling and the finish excellent. Although this is backward, it is nonetheless very promising.
Production of the Dominique Lafon wines has now moved to large cellars at the Château de Bligny, providing much better working conditions than previously. As a result of the hail, there is unlikely to be any village Volnay or Beaune Épenottes for us to offer. However, Dominique has found an excellent source of Beaune Vignes Franches this year to make up part of the shortfall. This cuvée apart, all the vineyards are managed by the Les Héretiers du Comte Lafon viticultural team, using the same methods. Starting this year, the wines will all be bottled using Diam30 corks.
Production of the Dominique Lafon wines has now moved to large cellars at the Château de Bligny, providing much better working conditions than previously. As a result of the hail, there is unlikely to be any village Volnay or Beaune Épenottes for us to offer. However, Dominique has found an excellent source of Beaune Vignes Franches this year to make up part of the shortfall. This cuvée apart, all the vineyards are managed by the Les Héretiers du Comte Lafon viticultural team, using the same methods. Starting this year, the wines will all be bottled using Diam30 corks.
Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2014
Alcohol % 13
Maturity Ready, but will improve
Grape List Pinot Noir
Body Medium Bodied
Producer Dominique Lafon
Critics reviews
Neal Martin MW 90/100
Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2014 tasting, Dominique Lafon's 2014 Volnay 1er Cru Les Lurets, closed under Diam 30, has a very pure and endearing bouquet with blueberry and dark cherry fruit, a hint of violet and some vanilla-laced oak yet to be fully subsumed. But here I feel that there is enough fruit to soak it up. The palate is medium-bodied with supple red cherry and strawberry notes, a very subtle mintiness that becomes more prominent toward the second half. There is commendable depth and poise here, but it needs another 18 to 24 months before it starts to drink well. Tasted September 2017.Neil Martin - 31/10/2017
About this wine
Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is probably the most frustrating, and at times infuriating, wine grape in the world. However when it is successful, it can produce some of the most sublime wines known to man. This thin-skinned grape which grows in small, tight bunches performs well on well-drained, deepish limestone based subsoils as are found on Burgundy's Côte d'Or. Pinot Noir is more susceptible than other varieties to over cropping - concentration and varietal character disappear rapidly if yields are excessive and yields as little as 25hl/ha are the norm for some climats of the Côte d`Or.
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Dominique Lafon
Dominique’s decision, in 2008, to start this parallel project – separate from Domaine des Comtes Lafon – was already an interesting proposition. Now, with his daughter Léa and nephew Pierre beginning to take bigger roles at the family domaine, Dominique may have a little more time to spend on these already splendid wines. Officially, this is a négociant business, but all the fruit comes from vineyards that Dominique either owns or has the contract to farm. In the winery The cellars are rented in the old château in Bligny-lès-Beaune but the same team is used to harvest the fruit for these wines and the Comtes Lafon estate. The winemaking is just the same as well, although the élevage is shorter.
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