Bourgogne Passetoutgrains

Both of the Lafarge cuves of Passetoutgrains are exceptionally good this year, but we have plumped for the bottling from the ancient vines which is deep dark and rich in fruit, with a refreshing touch of pepper and acidity. It is such a spectacular wine that Michel thinks it will keep for up to 20 years, I suggest we had better be slightly more conservative!
Jasper Morris MW, Burgundy Director

There is 40% less wine this year in the Lafarge cellar, and it is a great pity because the wines are exceptionally good. They began picking on 23rd September, bringing in ripe and healthy grapes which were slow to start fermenting. Michel Lafarge, as sprightly as ever at 83, describes 2010 as a happy surprise nobody could have expected this quality at the outset.

Pinot Noir and Gamay in equal parts, this comes from 90-year-old vines in Meursault, harvested together. It is simple but harmonious. Proof that you don’t have to have the fastest car to get to where you want to be. Understated, confident, moreish. Drink 2019-2024.
Adam Bruntlett, Burgundy Buyer

Michel Lafarge (b. 1928) and his son Frédéric make use of their combined experience to produce some of the greatest wines in Volnay. There is nothing modern in their winemaking, though the meticulous care of their biodynamically farmed vineyards puts the domaine at the forefront of viticultural practices. When they are working on a patch of vines they are usually accompanied by their hens who eat up any lurking pests. The grapes are de-stemmed, vinified traditionally and very little new oak is used in the cellar. Following on from the extraordinary success of the 2015 here, tasting the 2016s with Frédéric proved to be an equally breath-taking experience. In common with a handful of other cellars this year, in the right hands this vintage will be great. It might be easy to misread the wines and consider them obvious and accessible, but the best addresses have a profundity to match their wines’ succulence. Just so here; with such low yields after the frosts, not to mention the fruit lost to mildew, the skill was to achieve balanced sugars and tannins without over-maturity or density. The family’s deep knowledge of their vineyards and traditional, instinctive winemaking was the key. The delicacy and finesse here left us bereft of adjectives, but underpinning all the wines is the inherent vitality of the vineyards and the vintage.

The vineyard was co-planted with Gamay and Pinot Noir in 1928, and it was one of the two original parcels with which Michel’s father began. The soil is gravelly and perfectly attuned to fruity wines. Always with bright fruit and tannins, there is also surprisingly depth. Drink now to 2024.

A most amiable example. Like all Jérôme’s vines, these are planted in a single parcel, here from Morey-St Denis, with two-thirds Pinot Noir, one-third Gamay, co-planted 60-year-old vines. This has a charming, easy, purple fruit profile and a crunchy finish. Very pleasurable. Drink now to 2025.