Winemaker Notes
This is a small parcel with generous yields and a high proportion of old vines that produce very powerful wines with ripe aromas and explosive minerality.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
There is just a faint touch of yellow in the colour. There’s more to the nose here than Bouchères, showing a little bit more restraint, a bit more length, not too heavy, which it could have been. Maybe just a touch for perfect balance.
Barrel Sample: 91-94 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Mingling aromas of pear, green apple and citrus oil with hints of white flowers and toasted nuts, the 2019 Meursault 1er Cru Goutte d'Or is medium to full-bodied, satiny and precise, with a deep and concentrated core girdled by bright acids and underpinned by chalky dry extract. Long and penetrating, this is promising.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
Decanter
This is made from a plot of 0.4ha of fairly young vines in Gouttes d’Or, which have produced for Lafon a powerful wine, with typical Meursault aromas of an almost tropical intensity and a nutty character on the palate. The wine is rich, but will be endlessly rewarding for fans of the traditional style. Drinking Window: 2024 - 2039.
Barrel Sample: 93
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.