Cellar Circle exclusives

The 2023 vintage of Flor de Pingus is a blend of 95% Tinto Fino and 5% Garnacha. With just 20% new oak which melts into the ripe dark berry fruit, there are subtle notes of cocoa dusted cherries and charcoal embers. There is real intensity to the wine with pixelated, supple tannin that frames the fruit with real finesse. The finish is long, fresh and extremely harmonious.

The Lafarges always pick their Aligoté a couple of weeks after the main harvest, and rely on the small clutch of family members rather than the main harvest team, to bring the fruit in. The vines are approaching 90 years of age, and yield only tiny volumes of beautiful, characterful fruit, producing a wine with superb phenolic complexity. Aged half in cement, half in barrel the wine will be bottled at the end of March. The small golden-skinned berries of the ‘raisins dorés’ clone produce a wine with super energy with notes of fresh white grapefruit, lemon peel, and white flowers.

Stéphane’s parcel of 65-year-old vines lies right in the heart of the old Clos, the original part of the appellation. With such an amazing terroir, Stéphane comments that ‘70% of the job is done’! It shows delicate salinity and fragrant fruit depth. Understated but hugely impressive.

Produced in every vintage since the foundation of the domaine, this 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay, produced from co-planted vines, is one of Burgundy’s bargains. There is charm and freshness to the wine that offers aromas of violets and fresh red cherry with just a tinge of liquorice root on the finish.

The Lafons declassify the fruit of young vines grown in the 4-hectare plot into the village Volnay, meaning the 1er Cru Santenots-du-Milieu cuvée is the exclusive product of old vines. It is a complex red, with aromatic density, sour cherry freshness and a long, mineral finish, and for close followers of the domaine, one of the greatest wines in the cellar, whose reputation is more closely linked with its whites.

Monthelie is a small village just north of Meursault, producing deliciously crunchy red wines. The Lafon example is one of its leading lights. Indeed, the red wines at Lafon have come on a great deal in recent years, and this is one of the most affordable entry points to the domaine. Juicy, crunchy, and elegant Côte de Beaune Pinot at its finest.