TN: 2002 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières

WINE TALK
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  • 2002 Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault 1er Cru Les Perrières - France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Meursault 1er Cru (5/5/2010)
    OK, is it possible for a wine to be this good and still have a little oxidation? Well, the wine started fairly dark and a pretty oxidized nose, and I thought about pouring it out. But one sip gave me pause. The wine had an uncanny mineral richness and smoothness. There was/is an amazing balance and a black fruited( or undescribable blackness), sheer, amazing, balanced, intense attack that never let up but had such smoothness and no abruptness, and lasted for ages. What an amazing wine. Oh yes, the wine lightened up in color over about a day, and there was never a thought of oxidation on the mouth and only the slightest hint on the nose on day two. FWIW I am not a pro white Burg drinker, but I have bought a good few of them since 1992. I have had more than most of them premoxed- especially with any age. I have mostly, even in the worst case scenarios, let the pre-moxed wines I have opened, go to the next day- call it science-, and in this case it paid off. If you have zero tolerance for pre-mox, then you would probably “flaw” this wine. Also, I have never had a better example or Perrieres, so my score might not be of consequence, but I have to say that this is a mid to high 90’s wine, and gets better by the hour. 97 (97 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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Charlie-

That’s a good read; I’ll try your approach when next confronted with one of “them.” Thanks for the thoughtful analysis.

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Charlie,

If the wine got lighter in colour over time, it was most likely reduced rather than oxidized. What you are describing regarding its olfactory properties reinforces this notion.

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Yes…it surely wasn’t oxidized if it improved and lightened up. Lafon used to be among the weirdest to figure out…what was going on. Their elevage made them seem very advanced…and they often were. Very stylized. I have a 1985 lined up…but…have no idea what to expect.

This whole premox thing is puzzling…the wines don’t seem totally shot/dominated by the oxidation at times…but they are clearly “premoxed” in color and some elements. Traditionally, my sense is the oxidized wines didn’t have redeeming qualities; many of the “premoxed” do…not sure if that’s significant, but…as it’s still an unpleasant experience.

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Mike, I agree that the wine was a little reduced. But I think it was beginning the trip down premox lane, and Stuart described it perfectly in has second paragraph. A little tough to figure out, with some elements saying premox, and some saying a little reduced and turning wonderful. My score might be a little puzzling, and thus the caveat. It might have been more helpful to not score the wine and just let my words stand. I just wanted to get out that the juice was amazing, that patience paid off, and there are still some elements that could make some scratch their heads.

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OK! I’m humbled. This wine is terrific… call it Grosses Gewachs Chardonnay… 48 hours later really no thoughts of reduction or oxidation. I promise the wine was dark dark yellow, and had a horrible appearance 48 hours ago. I hope the picture does the lightness of color justice.