Wine Advisor
Raymond Lafon 2010
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Raymond-Lafon 2010 has a complex bouquet with lemon peel, almond and quince aromas, and is well-defined with an impressive sense of energy. The palate is well-balanced with a viscous opening, and well-judged acidity. It builds toward a rounded, pineapple and marmalade- tinged finish. This has good weight and presence with plenty of strikingly fresh acidity to keep everything balanced. This wine deserves a round of applause.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The Chateau Raymond-Lafon has a reticent nose at first that finds its voice after a few swirls of the glass, offering dried mango, almond and a touch of quince, all with fine delineation and intensity. The palate is medium-bodied with good acidity and tension, the minerality really coming through towards the beautifully composed finish. This is a very accomplished Raymond-Lafon that will repay cellaring.
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Pale to medium lemon-gold in color, the 2010 Raymond-Lafon comes charging out of the gate with flamboyant floral and spice notes of lime blossoms, jasmine, honeysuckle, allspice and powdered ginger plus wafts of dried mango and pineapple tart with a touch of marzipan. Rich, full-bodied, decadently spicy and fantastically opulent, it has oodles of freshness lifting all the accented fruit to a long and layered finish.
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2010 Raymond-Lafon has a light bouquet with dried honey, almond shavings and saffron, but considering the season, I would have liked more intensity. The palate is medium-bodied with a viscous opening, more complex than the bottle encountered four years ago, with lots of sucrosity on the finish that maybe just shaves away some of its precision. But certainly, this deserves a more generous score than I gave before.
About the Producer
Château Raymond-Lafon is a wine estate situated in the sweet wine appellation of Sauternes, 50km (30 miles) southeast of the city of Bordeaux on the left bank of the Garonne River. The estate was founded by the eopnymous Raymond Lafon in 1850 and today boasts 16 hectares (40 acres) of vineyards within the Sauternes appellation. Louis Pontallier inherited the estate from Lafon (his uncle) at the beginning of the 20th Century. He continued his family's winemaking legacy here until 1952, when he sold the estate to the Bourdier family (Louis' grandson Paul Pontallier would go on to become the well-known manager of Médoc First Growth Château Margaux in the late Twentieth and early 21st Centuries). In 1972, Francine and Pierre Meslier acquired Château Raymond-Lafon and today their three children, Marie-Françoise, Charles-Henri and Jean-Pierre, have taken over the running of the estate. The property's vineyards lie in close proximity to those of Sauternes' renowned Château d'Yquem, which lies just to the southeast of Raymond-Lafon. Sémillon accounts for 80 percent of the grape varieties grown on the Raymond-Lafon estate, with Sauvignon Blanc making up the remainder. The vineyards are hand-harvested across three to ten passes (or "tries" in the vineyard) and the grapes ferment naturally for three to five weeks. Château Raymond-Lafon's wines age in hand-split, new oak barrels for three years and are racked on a three-month basis. This entire process produces approximately 20,00 bottles of wine a year that fall under the estate's three wine labels: Château Raymond-Lafon, Jeunes Pousses de Raymond-Lafon and Le Cadet.
