Bourgogne Passetoutgrains

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.

A most amiable example. Like all of 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. What’s not to like? Fruity and crunchy. Drink 2019-2023.

There is always a breathless and rather chaotic energy in the Castagnier cellar but this year Jérôme could scarcely contain his enthusiasm. He loves his 2017s. To him they have the friand and gourmand style of 2014 but with more depth and density. He started his harvest on 6th September and employed less pigeage (punching down) than usual. The exigencies of the 2018 vintage meant Jérôme was obliged to move his 2017s to tank earlier than usual but even this has worked to his advantage: less time in wood has dialled up the focus and exuberance of this irresistible range of 2017s