Meursault Lieu-Dit

From one of Meursault’s finest village vineyards, this displays apples and lemons up front, peaches and pears behind and class throughout. It opens out very nicely on the palate with a delicious tangy lingering finish and real persistence.

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.

Pure, clear and bright in colour with green tints; this is a fabulous, dancing wine, on the tips of its balletdancer feet, with beautiful oak integration. Really lively and very persistent, this has a fine feeling of elegance, and all white fruit.

Jean-Philippe is serene in the knowledge of the quality of his 2014 vintage. The grapes were entirely healthy, there were no problems in vinification, the maturation process is happening as it should and the wines are set to give a great deal of pleasure all round. There is less reduction than last year, so they will be accessible reasonably early, while still having good keeping potential.

Medium pale colour, the nose shows the volume of fruit to come. This is more backward than Gruyaches or Chevalières. It boasts an excellent mineral thread with greengage fruit, middleweight, structure and persistence.

Jean-Philippe is serene in the knowledge of the quality of his 2014 vintage. The grapes were entirely healthy, there were no problems in vinification, the maturation process is happening as it should and the wines are set to give a great deal of pleasure all round. There is less reduction than last year, so they will be accessible reasonably early, while still having good keeping potential.

A fresh, bright colour, the bouquet is marked out by its immediate air of refinement. Chevalières is on song this year. Displaying electric energy behind, the mouth is full of white and greengage fruit, with light yellow plums and a very long finish. Drink 2020-2067.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

The vintage here began on 1st September and lasted a week. Jean-Philippe reports excellent yields in 2015, much more than in 2014. He hardly needed to settle the juice after pressing because the grapes were so healthy. He also took longer over the press cycle but has stirred the lees much less. The plan is for more natural body in his wines and less technique. He has also been reasonable with his prices this year: “Wine is a product for sharing,” he notes.

Fine, pale lemon, this has a lean and hungry nose, with fine, balanced aromatics. There is excellent length to this for Bouzereau’s basic Meursault. A friendly and enjoyable wine. Drink 2019-2022.
Jasper Morris MW, Wine Buyer

Picking began on 28th August and the whites were brought in across just three days. “It was such a beautiful quality of fruit,” says Jean-Baptiste, “that I couldn't stop eating the grapes.” Good sugar levels have brought alcohols ranging from 12.6 to 13.2 percent and the wines have been elegant right from the start.

A bright pale colour with a lime tinge, faint but positive reduction. It has a very classy nose, really intense linear pointed style; fabulous length and finish.
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

The 2013 vintage was another very difficult vintage to manage, with a heavily reduced crop after the hail, but unlike in 2012 Dominique has at least been able to make all his appellations. The wines were at a backward stage when tasted in October but with really exciting potential.

This tightly wound, nutty, and spiced apple-flavoured Meursault wine offers hints of white flowers and peaches. It is lush, soft and appealing. Drink it over the next 4 years. The quality shows in the persistent finish.
(Jasper Morris MW, BBR Buyer)

Fine yellow with a little green tint, a beautiful bouquet, heady but restrained. The fruit is really tightly wound on the palate, very vigorous yet with some flesh and great length. For medium term ageing but certain to do well. 
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Jean-Baptiste reports hardly any hail damage in 2013 but the crop was nonetheless limited by cold damp weather at the flowering. He began picking on 26th September, with all the whites picked before the wet weekend. Malolactic fermentation took a little longer than usual but no real problems in the cellar. The wines will be bottled in December, or January for the Premiers Crus.

Discreet wood surrounds ripe white peach, lemon rind and acacia blossom as well as a soft roasted nut character. There is excellent richness yet good detail too to the intense and mouth coating flavors that somewhat curiously, do not have the depth of the Gruyaches or the Chevalières, at least not yet anyway. We'll see in a few years as there is at least the underlying material to develop it. Note however that this is sufficiently forward that there isn't a lot of time in which to do so.
Allen Meadows - burghound.com - February 2011

Tesson is a good candidate for Meursault’s finest specific lieu-dit. This wine shows a beautiful noble reduction, with dancing fruit behind, elegance and energy. The palate displays yellow fruit at perfect ripeness yet with a magical excitement.
Jasper Morris, MW - Wine Buyer

Jean-Philippe Fichet is very excited with his 2013s, which he picked before the weekend of bad weather. He has also refined his techniques in the cellar, pressing the grapes for longer and settling out the juice less than before; both methods aimed at enhancing the vineyard character of each plot and making less ‘technical’ wines. A lovely range.

Fine, bright, pale lemon yellow in colour with a fine, perfumed nose. The hillside situation has paid off for this fine boned yet still concentrated wine and it is lifted and lively. There’s a real sense of precision as well as great persistence.
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Wine Director

Antoine started on 18th September with acceptable yields for the vintage, though not in every vineyard. He lost his Puligny Champgains to hail, for example. Both fermentations passed off without a hitch, and the wines are showing tremendous class. One or two new vineyards are coming on stream between 2012 and 2014, while some of his holdings will be reduced in favour of other family members. A very successful cellar this year.

Nothing heavy-handed here. Fichet brings his customary finesse to this rich and refreshing Meursault. Nutty oak sublimely supports the fruit in a lingering finish.
Edwin Dublin, London Shop Assistant Manager Richer in style than Jean-Philippe’s Les Chevaliers, this has some floral notes but also a great sense of weight. There is a touch of yellow fruit, and even a little tannin alongside the acidity. Quite frankly, this is a Premier Cru quality wine.
Jasper Morris MW, Berrys' Burgundy Director The model here in Fichet’s ultra-meticulous cellars, near the Hôpital de Meursault, is for the wines to spend one year in wood, with bigger barrels for the lesser appellations, and then for them to be racked into tank for the second winter. We adore Fichet’s style of pure, energetic Meursault while even his Bourgogne Blanc tastes like a superior appellation.

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Dominique has two parcels; one each in the lower and higher sectors. The nose displays a touch of spent- match reduction, while the palate is mineral and saline, confirming the hillside location of the vines. A wine of wonderful tension and precision. Long. Drink 2020-2026.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

From 2008 Dominique Lafon decided to make a few wines under his own label, separate from the family domaine (Les Héritiers du Comte Lafon). Though this new company has the official status of a négociant, almost all the wines are in fact domaine bottlings from vineyards which Dominique either owns or has the contract to farm. The wines are now vinified, matured and bottled in extensive cellars at the Château de Bligny-lès-Beaune. Dominique is delighted with the quality of the wines in 2016, praising their elegance, quality of tannins and fresh fruit profile. In his opinion the wines are as good as, but different to, 2015, explaining that – analytically – many of this year’s wines are no higher in acid than last year, but the slightly less rich character gives them a fresher feel. Unfortunately volumes are disappointing for many cuvées and there are only two commercially available red wines this year due to the frost, meaning that Dominique owed the vineyard owner more in grapes than he produced.

Jean-Philippe feels this is the perfect example of Meursault. There is a nice touch of gunflint reduction on the nose, which leads into intense stone fruit before tightening up again with a twist of lime acidity on the finish. There is real elegance here, with a touch of toast and butter that lingers. A complete wine. Drink 2021-2028.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

Fichet’s big step forward came in 2000 when he moved the whole operation to splendid cellars at Le Creux du Coche by the Hôpital de Meursault. Jean-Philippe is looking for purity in his wines. He deals mostly with lieux-dits in Meursault with just one Premier Cru in Puligny. Constantly experimenting and refining, his wines have real definition and individuality, with the individual terroirs clearly exposed. The wines are raised in barrel for the first year, using larger demi- muids for the lesser appellations, then assembled in tank. A maximum of 30 percent new oak is used on any cuvée. It is hard not to be infected by Jean- Philippe’s enthusiasm and positivity. Despite being 40 percent down in 2016, he remained upbeat, explaining that he sees the variability of vintages as part and parcel of a vigneron ’s lot. The losses could have been much worse, but the domaine is equipped with candles which protect against frost and they work hard in the vines to keep grass low to reduce the risk of frost damage. He declared himself happy with the quality, but feels it is a vintage which will require patience on the part of the consumer, as many of the wines will be more austere in youth than those of 2015.

This is a very characterful wine. Carel didn’t cool the must too much before fermentation, looking to retain more solids which adds more of a pulpy texture to the resulting wine. This has quite a traditional feel, with weighty fruit and a finish of apricot stone and hazelnut. Drink 2022-2028.

With a range that spans both Côtes, Carel observed that the red vintage is about pretty, balanced, fresh fruit. The reds south of Beaune are generally lighter than the north, where there is better phenolic intensity. Carel puts the whites on a par with 2014, but the raw material is healthier and so the wines are purer. He rates 2017 as one of the best white vintages in the last decade. Stylistically, Carel’s preferred direction for reds is towards whole-bunch and he confesses he would always do 100 percent if he could (and this year he often has).

This higher vineyard above the village, southeast- facing, was entirely frost-free this year. W hen we tasted, it was showing as quite fresh, but there is plenty of substance here, and the 33 percent new oak is not evident, boding well for the future. The finish is equally promising, with some excellent Meursault detail emerging.
Drink 2019-2024.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

The Javilliers have been involved in the wine business for generations as courtiers. When Patrick started out in 1974 this was the main source of his income, alongside which he worked three hectares of vineyards. His courtier days are now long behind him, and his domaine covers nine hectares. Recently, Patrick has been joined by his daughter Marion and her brother-in-law Pierre- Emmanuel Lamy. Patrick is not far away from 50 vintages; Marion is now making the estate’s red wines, and Pierre-Emmanuel largely does the whites – not that Patrick is taking a back seat. As always, conversation with him is peppered with observations; indeed he has been closely involved in the discussions to create a new generic Côte d’Or appellation, a move that would appear to now just need a rubber stamp. There wasn’t too much frost damage here and harvesting began on 20th September; Patrick observes that the character of the vintage is one that can take a bit more bâtonnage than usual.

Grands Charrons sits at the same height as the village’s Premiers Crus but faces more to the east. The wine is beautifully aromatic in 2017, floral with a hint of honey and a fine, ripe entry to the palate, although still with plenty in reserve. Drink 2022-2028.

The harvest started on 30th August in Cailleret and Charmes, and was finished by 9th September. The Pinot Noir and Chardonnay flowered in warm weather at the same time but, while the Pinot loved the heat, Chardonnay did not, with the resulting coulure and millerandage restricting yields to around 50hl/ha. Jean-Baptiste looked to get texture into his wines with skin contact and an extended fermentation rather than through bâtonnage, seeking to capture as much of the vital balancing freshness as possible.

The lovely, racy personality of this vineyard is well served by the generosity of 2017. The wine is very fruity and open, with notes of white flower and peach stone, but counterpointed by a firm, detailed structure, typical of this lime-rich site. Drink 2021-2025.

Since our visit last year, Patrick’s dream of an appellation exclusively for generic wines from the Côte d’Or has been realised and the label of the estate’s estimable Cuvée Oligocène proudly announces its new status. For 2017, Patrick’s daughter Marion explained, they didn’t need to keep too much of the lees, as the musts were already rich and they preferred to use bâtonnage for complexity. Harvesting began on 28th August and Marion feels there is a purer expression of terroir this year than last.

For those who enjoy mineral expressions of Meursault, Tesson is one of the most highly regarded village vineyards, facing east on the mid-slope. The nose is pure and clean with a marine character, while the palate is tight and tense with lots of energy and vibrancy, nicely supported by just enough fruit. Drink 2022-2029.

Jean-Philippe explained how he and his vineyard team had to work extremely hard in the aftermath of the 2016 frost, managing the vines to make sure that the following year’s growth would not be compromised. Meticulous marathonrunner Jean-Philippe is just the man for such an arduous task. He is delighted with the results, explaining that quality is excellent and the yield was neither too big, nor too small. These wines are as reliably fresh and precise as you would expect, with each vineyard’s character shining through.