Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
The very good news for fans of this wine - and that surely includes anyone who has been lucky enough to drink a bottle - is that Dominique Lafon produced a record (for him) seven barrels in 2018, the most since his father was in charge back in 1982. Sourced from a 0.3ha of Burgundy's most famous white Grand Cru, it's a white that takes your breath away: subtle, complex and intense, with easily digested new wood, layers of citrus, stone fruit and spice and near-perfect balance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
There are fully seven barrels of the 2018 Montrachet Grand Cru—one fewer than the eight produced in 1982, but considerably more than the four that have been more or less the norm over the last decade—equating to a yield of around 45 hectoliters per hectare from Lafon's 0.32-hectare parcel. Bursting with expressive aromas of orange oil, white flowers, ripe pears, warm bread and toasted almonds, it's full-bodied, fleshy and enveloping, with a satiny-textured attack, an ample core of fruit and chalky grip on the impressively long finish.
Barrel Sample: 96-98 -
Jasper Morris
Mid yellow, warmly sumptuous, a bouquet full of juicy fruit, more on the yellow plum side. Just a little touch of bacon. Good acidity behind. Needs time to come together. The bouquet now starts to show some honeysuckle. Ripe, but Montrachet is a terroir can accept that.
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.
A source of some of the finest, juicy, silky and elegantly floral Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet lies just to the north of Chassagne-Montrachet, a village with which it shares two of its Grands Crus vineyards: Le Montrachet itself and Bâtard-Montrachet. Its other two, which it owns in their entirety, are Chevalier-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. And still, some of the finest white Burgundy wines come from the prized Premiers Crus vineyards of Puligny-Montrachet. To name a few, Les Pucelles, Le Clavoillon, Les Perrières, Les Referts and Les Combettes, as well as the rest, lie northeast and up slope from the Grands Crus.
Farther to the southeast are village level whites and the hamlet of Blagny where Pinot Noir grows best and has achieved Premier Cru status.