2014 Meursault Les Perrieres

The 2014 Meursault Les Perrières 1er Cru from Dominique Lafon ranks as one of the finest in recent years. It is blessed with an entrancing bouquet with a very subtle Coche-like reduction that deftly allows the terroir to shine through. This could only be Les Perrières. The palate is fine-boned with lip-smacking salinity and stunning precision, and flinty on the aftertaste. Just a magnificent Meursault with 20 years ahead. Tasted blind at Maison de Colombier in Beaune.

Lafon’s 2014 Meursault Perrières 1er Cru is off the charts. I chanced upon a parcel of 2014 Lafons recently, and every bottle has been absolutely stellar, so I was not at all surprised by this showing. This is classic Perrières. Veins of acid and saline-infused minerals run through a core of white orchard fruit laced with a classic touch of reduction. What a wine.

Medium yellow. Highly complex perfume of peach, ginger and saline minerality. Vertical and penetrating on entry, then spreads out horizontally to saturate the mouth, offering the density and depth of flavor of a grand cru. Incredibly tactile, salty, dry wine with superb concentration to its flavors of yellow peach, pineapple and crushed stone. And yet this Perrières is already surprisingly tastable and absolutely delicious. The dusty, chewy finish leaves the taste buds quivering. A great example from an outstanding vintage for white Burgundy. As solid, stony and saline as this wine is, it also boasts terrific fruit intensity, definition and lift. (Incidentally, Lafon racked his 2014 white wines into stainless steel tanks in January of '16, a bit earlier than previously and a practice that he has continued with subsequent vintages.) (just 25 hectoliters per hectare produced owing to late-June hail; 4.6 grams per liter total acidity; 3.2 pH; aged in one-third new oak)