What started out, back in 1999, as just a challenge to occupy the hyperactive attention of perhaps Burgundy’s most famous winemaker, Dominique Lafon’s Heritiers project has become almost an institution: an annual set of wines that routinely set the standard for quality in the Maconnaise.  This year we, once again, chose the Macon-Villages from the dozen or so wines Lafon produces each vintage, as it was, for us, the best blend of character and value in the entire lineup.  Coming from two separate but adjacent biodynamically-farmed parcels, one in Uchizy and the other in Chardonnay (yes, that’s the village of Chardonnay), both over 35 years old and planted on chalk and clay, the Villages cuvee was kept on its lees in old 53-hectoliter casks for eight months before it was bottled late last spring.  2024 saw a bizarre growing season with yields decimated by frost, hail and mid-season disease pressure.  But the quality of what was harvested was absolutely classic, a terrific vintage in terms of both fruit concentration and acidity. The acidities were very precise and the structures near perfect.  The wine is typically tight and stony upon release with lemon crème brulee, geranium and grape sugar on the nose and its full palate usually needs a good amount of air to fully express itself.  I actually like to decant this wine when I drink it within the first few years of its life.  With time, however, the nose loses its reticence and becomes much fuller, much more expressive.  It’s clearly now a benchmark for the Macon-Villages appellation- a wine you’ll find in most every winemaker in the Macon’s own cellar.  Everyone wants to know what Lafon is up to!  Drink it young with oysters, clams or other seafood dishes, or wait a year or two and enjoy its richness alongside those seared scallops in tarragon butter!  Our allocation, normally 5 cases is, this year, only 2.  Come and get it!