Domain Comtes Lafon Meursault Desiree 2012
The 2012 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault Désirée is a 100% Chardonnay white Burgundy wine classified under the Meursault village appellation. This cuvée comes from the Désirée parcel. The Wine Advocate awards it 90-92/100, highlighting a fresh and vibrant profile driven by citrus fruits, with greater weight and energy leading to a spicy finish. Jancis Robinson gives it a score of 17/20 and recommends drinking it between 2017 and 2024.
Identité du vin
- Couleur
- White
- Pays
- France
- Région
- Bourgogne
- Appellation
- Meursault
- Producteur / Domaine
- Domaine des Comtes Lafon
- Parcelle / Cru
- Désirée
Cépage et assemblage
- Grape Variety
- 100% Chardonnay
Domaine des Comtes Lafon
The Domaine des Comtes Lafon is a family-run estate based in Meursault, in the heart of the Côte de Beaune. Its vineyards are spread across Meursault, Volnay, Monthélie and Chassagne-Montrachet, notably including plots in Meursault’s Premier Cru vineyards and Montrachet’s Grand Cru vineyard. The estate is currently run by Léa and Pierre Lafon, whilst Jérôme Delassus is listed as cellar master.
- Owner
- GFA du Domaine des Comtes Lafon (famille Lafon)
- Maître de chais
- Jérôme Delassus
Histoire du domaine
The estate’s history is linked to Jules Lafon, a native of Tarn-et-Garonne, who was transferred to Dijon in 1887 as part of his role at the Administration of Registration, Estates and Stamps. In 1894, he married Marie Boch, who came from a family of wine-growers and merchants in Meursault, marking the start of his involvement in the village’s wine industry. Having become a lawyer, Jules Lafon was granted the title of Papal Count in 1918, which would give the estate its name. He gradually acquired several Meursault Premier Crus, including Genevrières, Perrières and Charmes, as well as a plot in Montrachet in 1918. As mayor of Meursault, he played a part in reviving the Paulée de Meursault in 1923, before giving up his legal practice in 1931 to devote himself to the estate. Following his death in 1940 and that of his son Pierre in 1944, the estate – which was then largely run on a sharecropping basis – was on the verge of being sold. René Lafon took over the management in 1956, and the entire production has been bottled at the estate since 1961. Dominique Lafon succeeded his father in 1984 and gradually reclaimed the plots previously entrusted to sharecroppers, a process completed in 1993. Under his leadership, the estate adopted organic farming and then biodynamic practices between 1995 and 1998. Léa Lafon joined the estate in 2019 and Pierre Lafon in 2020; they now run the estate, with Jérôme Delassus as cellar master.
Désirée
Désirée is the former cadastral name of a small plot located in Les Petures, also called Les Plures, in the northern part of the Meursault village territory in the Santenots sector. Although its location falls within the perimeter of Meursault Premier Cru Les Plures, the wine bearing the name Désirée is commercialized as Meursault Village in order to preserve this historical denomination. The plot, planted with chardonnay, has an east-facing exposure and rests on a shallow clay-limestone soil, red and rich in iron oxides, over a limestone substrate.
- Vineyard commune
- Meursault
- Exposure
- East
- Soil
- Shallow clay-limestone soil, with red clays rich in iron oxides
- Subsoil and geology
- Limestone substrate
Le domaine dans cette parcelle
- Estate holding in the vineyard (ha)
- 0.450000 ha
- Vineyard holding status
- owner
- Indicative vine age
- Plot replanted in 2008 according to several professional sources; one source mentions 2007.
Histoire de la parcelle
La Désirée was already identified as a vineyard plot in the 19th century and reportedly belonged in 1855 to Mr. Dumesnil, with an entirely white-grape planting. Domaine des Comtes Lafon was already commercializing this name by the end of the 19th century. The cadastral denomination Désirée was removed in 1973, but its use on labels has been maintained due to this prior history.
