Winemaker Notes
The terroir of Clos de la Barre produces rich, mineral wines, with pronounced citrus aromas and marked acidity.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Dominique Lafon's home vineyard is a 2.4ha parcel that sits just below the winery on clay and limestone soils and regularly produces one of the best village Meursaults. Made without new wood, it has notes of aromatic baking spices, fennel and lemon tart with plenty of texture and weight.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Lafon's 2017 Meursault Clos de la Barre is showing very well, unwinding in the glass with aromas of crisp orchard fruit, wheat toast, white flowers, blanched almonds and praline. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, it's a concentrated, layered wine built around a bright spine of acidity. This is still quite youthful and tightly wound. It will continue to improve with more bottle age. Rating: 92+
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Known to offer a magical balance of smoothness and freshness, Meursault's quality is hard to rival. The village lies in the middle of Côte de Beaune, just south of Volnay. Meursault is said to mean “mouse’s jump” because in the past the plots producing Pinot Noir and those producing Chardonnay were no more than a mouse’s jump from one another. Today the village is almost exclusively Chardonnay. A tiny bit of Pinot Noir is produced here with the best coming from Les Santenots on its northern side near Volnay.
While there are no Grands Crus, Meursault’s numerous acclaimed Premiers Crus can compete with any other top-notch white Burgundy. Some to know are Les Perrières, Les Genevrières, Les Charmes, Le Poruzot, Les Bouchères and Les Gouttes d’Or.
Meursault produces outstanding village level wines as well. In general great Premiers Crus and even village level Meursault (Chardonnay) have enticing aromas of lime peel, tropical fruit, crushed rocks, spice and hazelnut. On the palate there is a wonderful balance of brightness and a seductive length with flavors of white peach, pineapple and citrus.