2021 Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er Cru 'Santenots du Milieu'

The harvest is all done by hand, and the grapes are sorted twice—once in the vineyards and again at the winery. Their vines average 32 years. Traditional, natural fermentations are the hallmark of the domaine. Native yeasts, slow fermentations and long élévages allow the wines to express the complexity and nuance of each terroir. The Chardonnays are pressed gently and undergo a cool settling of the must for 24 hours before the juice is racked into both new and lightly-used oak barrels. Alcoholic fermentations last for three months, kept at a cool 22 to 24°C in their underground cellars. The whites are generally stirred on their lees, depending on the cuvee, and then undergo malolactic fermentation, which ends in May following the harvest. The whites are bottled unfiltered 18 to 22 months after the harvest. The Pinot Noirs are mostly de-stemmed to encourage the best expression of the fruit. Alcoholic fermentation occurs in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel tanks, with two daily punch-downs for about 12 days. At that point, both the free-run and direct-press wines are assembled and left to settle for two weeks. The reds are then racked by gravity into oak barrels, one-third of which are new. Malolactic fermentation begins late for the reds and generally occurs between March and May, after which the cuvees are racked back into their original barrels. Like the whites, the reds are bottled 18 to 22 months following the harvest.