Description
Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet AOC
Domaine Leflaive is the finest address in the historic, and world famous, village of Puligny-Montrachet. Simply put, this places the estate in the top half dozen of white wine producers on the planet. Indeed, many consider them the Chardonnay specialist equivalent of what Domaine de la Romanée-Conti does with Pinot Noir a few miles up the Côte d’Or. With Pierre Vincent directing the farming and winemaking, and Brice de la Morandière, great-grandson of Joseph Leflavie, recently taking the helm from the legendary Anne-Claude Leflaive, this iconic domaine is at the peak of its impressive powers.
The benchmark villages AOC Puligny-Montrachet is sourced from seven different parcels that surround the town, with vines ranging from 40 to 60 years old, and like all Leflaive vineyards the farming has been biodynamic for over 25 years. The winemaking is very similar across all the terroirs that Leflaive exploits: A very gentle pneumatic pressing in tanks is followed by native yeast fermentation in French oak barrels, only 18% of which are new, and aging for 12 months before racking back into steel tanks to settle for an additional six months. 2021 was an extremely challenging year, and production was down at the domaine by 60%. But, what fruit was harvested was pristine and perfectly balanced, resulting in some of the finest wines that Leflaive has made in the last several decades. If you want to enjoy this wine in the next one to three years just give it a brief decant, and serve at a cool 50 degrees to enjoy classic aromas and flavors of just ripe apples, lemon curd, white flowers, toasted hazelnut, and wild fennel. Ideally you put a couple bottles in the cellar, as this wine will age and improve over the next decade or more. We agree wholeheartedly with Burghound’s Allen Meadows when he states, “This is an excellent Puligny Villages that is also worth strong consideration.”
