Côte Chalonnaise/Mâcon

It’s fitting that Le Clos graduated to Premier Cru status in the 2020 vintage. It is a superb 2.7-hectare monopole vineyard of the domaine, sitting right outside the cellar door. It is home to many old vines, some of which were planted as far back as 1929. The youngest vines you’ll find here are from 1984. These east-facing vines grow on three different soils - clay at the bottom, marl in the middle and limestone at the top. It’s the most serious wine in the Château de Fuissé cellar, with complex layers resulting from the patchwork of soil types and vine diversity and oak ageing (85% new). 2023 is an extremely structured and complete wine. The nose spans white peaches, orange peel, honeysuckle, and vanilla. The palate is balanced, deep and focused. A zesty freshness with impressive persistence on the finish.

Claudie’s father, in his days of running a plant nursery with access to a huge range of plant material, planted seven different clones of Pinot Noir in this 2.5-hectare site. Now at 45 years old, this diversity, twinned with the quality of vineyard husbandry, means the vineyard is thriving. The different clones call for pruning and harvesting at different times, but it’s an effort worth making, as the wine is texturally sophisticated, lifted, and full of Pinot nuance. It’s open, balanced and extremely drinkable, with a touch (10%) of new oak adding a little sweet spice to the gorgeous red fruit.

Claudie makes this in exactly the same way as her Rully Montagne la Folie, but the expression couldn’t be more different. It comes from a parcel in the south-east of the appellation, near Mercurey, and makes a wine with an amplitude and volume that gives the wine weight and power. The fruit leans toward nectarines; there’s a lusciousness as well as a delicious salinity to the length of this wine.

These vines are, almost unbelievably, 105 years old. Claudie has just 0.37 hectares in this Premier Cru, and admits that keeping it with the original vines is more sentimental than business-savvy, since the yields they produce are so low. But it’s wrapped up in her family history, and she just loves it too much to uproot it. Instead she works the tiny parcel by horse and hand, and makes from its fruit a complex and intense wine with surprisingly silky tannins that has the substance and poise to age with grace.

Full of life, this wine is extremely expressive, vibrant, and floral on the nose. The palate abounds with densely packed stone fruit flavours, cut through by a fresh salinity, mouthwatering acidity, and wonderful tension. This 2023 has the material to go the distance. It comes from three neighbouring parcels near the cellar, from vines with an average age of 45 years. The additional clay in the soil here gives added depth and length to this cuvée.

Many parcels are blended into this brilliant wine, all from the Viré side of the appellation. The old vines thrive in the village’s clay-rich topsoil over limestone subsoil. The wines from this side of the appellation tend to be straighter and tighter than the more generous and rounded Clessé side. It’s a wonderfully restrained wine, showing its class in its long, precise finish.

The Lafons own two hectares in Saint-Véran. It’s one of their more recent purchases, Dominique having picked up two parcels in 2014 and 2016. The blend of the two sites makes a powerful and compelling example of the appellation, with some waxy yellow fruit notes on the nose and a deliciously textured palate cut through by a lemon-scented edge. It balances richness with freshness in style.

This is the pinnacle of the Lafon wines in the Mâconnais, or as Dominique used to put it, the ‘Porusots’ of the Mâcon domaine. That is to say, it is crystalline and pure, with a power, presence and precision you might expect from a much grander appellation in the Côte d'Or.

The Chardonnay of this wine’s name actually refers to the village, although it’s a rather nice nod to the variety that is responsible for the vast majority of the wines produced in Mâcon. Clos de la Crochette is a charming walled vineyard that Dominique Lafon bought in 2003. After a little investigation he discovered it is one of the most historic sites in all of Burgundy, first planted by the monks of Cluny (c.900 AD). The energy and tension of the 2023 emphatically demonstrates why this has been a favourite spot with winegrowers through the centuries.

This 2-hectare plot lies in the north of the region, and typically produces a wine with gentler acidity than the domaine’s others. Nevertheless, it is always one of the most balanced, and one of the freshest feeling. This freshness is derived from the minerality of fruit, grown on the marl soils of Uchizy. It wraps around the perfumed fruit and makes for an impeccably balanced wine.