Screaming Pinot...
From the King of Chardonnay
1999 Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er Cru
Santenots du Milieu
The Only Bottles Available in the Country
"It's not hard to see why Lafon believes this is one of the finest wines ever produced at the Domaine." - Allen Meadows
This is a domaine with a stellar reputation for its white Burgundies... and yet Dominique Lafon and Allen Meadows are calling the 99 Santenots - a Pinot Noir from Volnay - one of the finest wines ever produced here. That puts this wine in an interesting position at the front of a very elite pack.
Today we offer the 1999 Lafon Volnay 1er Santenots du Milieu at $174.95. That's the lowest - check that, it's the the only - pricing in the country.
We've got just a few cases to share today, so this offer is going out as a way of saying, "happy new year!" to those of you who have strongly supported our Burgundy program. This parcel will move quickly.
I'll start by noting that we shouldn't be surprised by the accolades. The 1999 vintage was phenomenal for red Burgundy. It combined, as demonstrated perfectly in Lafon's Santenots, a weightiness and expansive profile of saturating fruit and earth with ample acidity to counteract it all and drive home a long finish.
And Lafon always rocks the Santenots. In fact, though Dominique is commonly referred to as the King of Chardonnay, those who passionately follow Burgundy know that Lafon's Santenots is a bottling that, year in and year out, is simply not to be missed. It is well represented in the most serious cellars.
Dominique Lafon is, on both the red and white wine front, very highly regarded for his fanatical grape selection and biodynamic agriculture, for the way he coaxes the most beautiful expressions of terroir out of each respective site. Here, it's the Santenots du Milieu plot of land - considered the "tête de cuvée" of the Santenots appellation, a site of heavy red clay soil, giving the wines more breadth and depth as well as longevity.
Add the 99 vintage to the formula, with its exuberant black spices and velvety, plush and deep fruit that's now beginning to give off secondary sous bois notes, and you certainly have a recipe for the kind of praise mentioned above. Furthermore, while this is just coming into its prime, the "recipe" pretty much assures that this will soar for another decade, very easily.
Finally, let's pause for a second on today's pricing: For fun, do a quick search for "Santenots" on Burghound (okay; we've done it for you), and you'll find Lafon's 99 in position five of all time... right behind Bouchard's 1865 and Giroud's 1949 (quite decidedly no longer available anywhere), Leroy's 1993 (available for $1700, if you like), and Lafon's own 2005 (up to 50% more than today's pricing, and far from its prime drinking window). Safe to say this is a benchmark wine at an outrageous value considering the quality, the producer, the vintage and the age.
Again, we've got just a few cases, so please give us your maximum order, and we'll divvy up as fairly as possible at the end of the day.
To order, please email us at offers@crushwineco.com or call the store at (212) 980-9463. And happy new year!
Ian McFadden
Director, Fine & Rare Wine
Crush Wine & Spirits
Santenots du Milieu
Special Email Bottle Price: $174.95
No other pricing in the world
Burghound: Wonderfully expressive with massive amounts of spicy black fruit and seductive flavors; the wine has an enormous amount of underlying material and is incredibly complex. But it's the length that defines this wine as it simply goes on and on. It's not hard to see why Lafon believes this is one of the finest wines ever produced at the Domaine. Simply magnificent.
Wine is pre-arrival
NET | No further discount