2008 Meursault Les Charmes

(ready for bottling) Complex nose combines peach, apple, crushed stone, marzipan and sexy vanillin oak, plus a high note of cherry. Rich, suave and concentrated but not as silky today as the Genevrieres. In fact, this very juicy wine comes across as almost lean. Best today on the very long, juicy, lemon-and-limey back end. This has a lower pH than the Genevrieres, notes Lafon, who can always come up with a terrific blend here, as he enjoys one of the prime positions in Charmes, just next to Perrieres, and is able to blend juice from 18-, 40- and 75-year-old vines, declassifying barrels he's less happy with. This is Lafon's flagship white premier cru bottling and a consistent winner; happily, it's much easier to find in the marketplace than the Perrieres.

Tasted from a new barrels so a little oakier than the final blend will be, this was the first really creamy Meursault in the Lafon line-up. Really brilliant Charmes fruit with great life and punchy attack. Very easy to like, even at this early stage. (JR)