Château Raymond-Lafon Château Raymond-Lafon Château Raymond-Lafon is an unclassified Sauternes wine producer from the Sauternes appellation. The estate's sweet wines are a result of the onset of "noble rot" ("Botrytis cinerea"). Raymond-Lafon is located in the southern part of France’s Bordeaux wine region in the district of Graves, immediately north of Sauternes' most historically rated vineyard, Château d'Yquem, east of Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey and Château Clos Haut-Peyraguey, and south of Château Suduiraut. The 1850 edition of "Cocks & Féret" mentions the Lafon cousins, one of whom was Raymond Lafon, a mayor of Sauternes, who was later registered as a vineyard owner by 1868.
Harvest (wine) or in the cool of night is a priority, mechanical harvesting can accomplish these goals very well. Despite the costs, some wineries prefer the use of human workers to hand-pick grapes. The main advantage is the knowledge and discernment of the worker to pick only healthy bunches and the gentler handling of the grapes. The production of some dessert wine like Sauternes and Trockenbeerenauslese require that individual berries are picked from the botrytized bunches which can only be done by hand. In areas of steep terrain, like in the Mosel, it would be virtually impossible to run a mechanical harvester