Magnum Volnay 1st Growth Santenots du Milieu 2008 - Domaine des Comtes Lafon

• Presentation of the winery

Jules Joseph Barthelemy Lafon, a native of Tarn-et-Garonne, is the creator of Domaine des Comtes Lafon. Born in 1864, his job of controller in the administration led him to settle in Dijon in 1887. He married in 1894 Marie Boch, daughter of a merchant-owner of Meursault. Involved in local life, Jules Lafon, then Mayor of Meursault, restored in 1923 the end of harvest meal, the "Paulée de Meursault", still being practiced each year. He abandoned his professional duties in 1931 to devote himself to the family estate, which he will extend through the purchase of several Premiers Crus: Genevrières, Perrières, Charmes and a parcle of Grand Cru : famous Montrachet.
At his death, the estate is partly given in sharecropping, and Henry, after the untimely death of his brother Pierre, undertook to sell the vines. His nephew René opposed himself to this decision, and became  head of the estate in 1956. He undertook the restoration of the vineyards, and made important replanting. In 1961, for the first time, the entire harvest is bottled.
Dominique Lafon, current domain manager, succeeded his father in 1984, and began in 1987 to break the sharecropping contracts. Since 1993, all the vines are directly operated by the Domaine des Comtes Lafon.
The area has 16.30 hectares of vines, planted 1/3 Pinoit Noir, 2/3 Chardonnay, spread over 4 towns and producing 15 appellations. The production method is biodynamic since the 1998 vintage, and the estate got the Organic Agriculture certification that year. The production quality is ensured upstream in the vines, whose average age is high, worked without fertilizer and through manual harvesting and aging of wines for many months before bottling.

•  The Wine

The Volnay vineyard is located between Meursault and Pommard south to north, and only red wines are produced under this registered name. 

The Domaine des Comtes Lafon is recognized for the excellence of its productions, and the Volnays are no exception.