Tasting Notes
Vinous 94
Usually we feature older wines in Cellar Favorites, but given the understandable trepidation consumers have around cellaring white Burgundy, I thought it would be interesting to see how a handful of highly touted white Burgundies are faring. To be honest, I had a selfish reason for wanting to taste these wines. I bought many of the Lafon 2010s (it is my daughter’s birth year), but I did so not really knowing when the wines would be ready to drink or how long they will last. I think I can at least offer a view on the first part of that question, but the second, happily, remains a question mark, in the best sense of the term.Vinous readers will recall that 2010 is unusual in the Côte de Beaune for its combination of both elevated ripeness and high acidity, two attributes one rarely finds in the same vintage. At Lafon, the 2010s were positively electric when I tasted them from barrel and then from bottle. Today, a few years later, the 2010 whites are every bit as impressive. Although projecting drinking windows for white Burgundy these days is fraught with peril, based on this showing all of the 2010s need at least a few more years in bottle with the possible exception of the Goutte d’Or.The 2010 Meursault Charmes is everything Charmes is supposed to be. Soft, enveloping and generous, but with plenty of vintage 2010 energy, the Charmes marries soft contours with layers of saline-infused precision. The 2010 is pretty hard to resist today because its balance is so impeccable, but it should develop even more complexity over time.
Robert Parker 95
The 2010 Meursault Charmes has found a level of focus over the last year that it didn’t have from barrel. The characteristic Charmes richness is there, but over time, the wine’s mineral elements have taken on additional prominence. Layers of deep, resonant fruit crescendo to the textured, multi-dimensional finish. This is a great showing from Comtes Lafon. Anticipated maturity: 2015+.
