MEURSAULT, France -- It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call this small village toward the southern end of Burgundy's Cote d'Or the center of the white wine universe.
Though Meursault can claim no grand cru vineyards, its Chardonnays are prized the world over for their intense minerality, remarkable complexity and the ability to age for decades in a proper cellar.
They certainly rival the important wines from the neighboring villages of Puligny and Chassagne, and the vigneron Dominique Lafon is responsible for that in no small measure. I confess to a fondness for the best of Meursault, even over the three wonderful grand cru vineyards nearby--Montrachet, Batard Montrachet and Chevalier Montrachet.
And few would argue that Domaine des Comtes Lafon is not the master of Meursault, particularly the premier cru vineyards of Charmes, Perrieres, Genevrieres and Goutte d'Or. In the hierarchy of the vineyards of Burgundy, premier cru ranks just below grand cru in the official classification.
Nowhere is the justice of the classification more suspect than in Meursault. Wine enthusiasts lucky enough to have ever tasted a Meursault-Charmes or Meursault-Genevrieres with 10 to 15 years of bottle age understand that finer Chardonnay does not exist.
So it is hardly a surprise that everyone takes notice when Dominique Lafon thinks outside the box.
He was among the first vignerons in Burgundy to experiment with bio-dynamic farming some 15 years ago, which eventually led him to park his tractor in the barn and hitch his plough to a horse to till the domaine's vineyards.
"Most of my neighbors said, 'You are stupid,'" Lafon says with great emphasis on the word stupid. He laughs.
"Now, they want to borrow my plough."
Lafon's most recent folly is a serious investment in the Maconnais region of Burgundy. He purchased his first vineyards in the Macon in 1999 and is now up to 14 hectares, or about 33 acres.
This development has made Frederic Burrier of Chateau de Beauregard a very happy man.
Beauregard is situated in a sweet spot in the Macon and produces a lovely Pouilly-Fuissé that is popular because of its freshness and easy drinkability. This is the style for which the Macon is known. It doesn't hurt their popularity that the wines of the Macon also are inexpensive in relation to the rest of Burgundy.
But Burrier is leader of the organization of vignerons of Pouilly-Fuissé and he is a man on a mission.
"It says quite a bit about the quality of our terroir that great domaines from the Cote d'Or have come in and purchased vineyards here," said Burrier. "So we are encouraging more of our growers to produce wines for their own domain from their best terroir."
The upshot is that the wines of the Macon are bound to improve as a result, and still the prices will be attractive in relation to the wines from the top classifications of the Cote d'Or.
"I used to buy wines in the Macon," said Lafon. "I kind of liked them. It's still one of the places in Burgundy where you can start with no money and make good wines. Here in (the Cote d'Or) you can't do that. Vineyards are very expensive. But the soil in the Macon is good."
"I could have looked for vineyards in some other part of France, the Rhone or Provence, and learned how to work with grapes that would have been new for me. But why? In the Macon it's the soil I know, and I'm working with the grapes I know."
Lafon is producing a range of single-vineyard Chardonnays from the Macon that represent great value for white Burgundy--stunning Chardonnay from a brilliant vigneron in the $20 price range.
"They will never be as complex as a Meursault, but they are good, generous wines," said Lafon. "We can get to a really nice level of wine--much better than the vision people have of the Macon."
You only wonder what the neighbors must think.
