Our wine club got together to taste ( blind ) 2 trio’s of Chevalier Montrachet : so 3x 2007 and 3 x 2008 . This was an " enlightening " experience .
2007’s : the first wine was young , mineral , a bit muted . The second one was fully ready and the third wine was oxidized . A lot of discussion around wine nr 2 . I thought it was delicious , with some botrytis on the nose and taste with some hints of honey . The wine is fully ready . That is imo not premature oxidation . People these days start flipping when a white wine is golden of ready to drink . We did not know it was 2007 but many guessed it . This vintage is slightly overrated , I think ( certainly when compared to the next one ) . Most wines should drink fine now .
- wine 1 : light bodied , finesse , tight and muted , not giving much . Bouchard Chevalier Montrachet 2007 : 92/100
- wine 2 : medium bodied , some liqueur , honey , fully ready . Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet 2007 : 93/100
- wine 3 : clearly oxidized ( not just a little ) : Jadot , Chevalier Montrachet 2007 : NR
Then the next blind flight of 3 wines . Wow , what a line up . Just incredible purity , minerality , power . These wines will age for ever . The real deal .Turned out to be 2008 , a great vintage of white Burgundy for those who have the patience . Difficult to choose which wine was best but most agreed on wine nr 2 , closely followed by wine nr 1 . 3 magnificent wines and THE reason why I love white Burgundy . It does not get better than this . And… I had never heard about the winner .
- wine 1 : powerful , mineral , chalk , you taste liquid rocks . This is def grand cru . Domaine Leflaive Chevalier Montrachet 2008 : 97/100
- wine 2 : same style and even more purity . Grand classe . Will age for ever . I was sure this was Montrachet . Chevalier Montrachet 2008 Philippe Colin 98/100
- wine 3 : would have won any competition but did not reach this ultimate perfection of the previous ones . Slightly more flowery . Great wine by any standards. Chevalier Montrachet 2008 Vincent dancer : 95/100
NB . My friend Don C. had asked me to retaste the Leflaives . The first Chevalier 07 from my 07 case of 6 tasted like the Bouchard . Tight , still way too young . Wine nr 2 came from the same case . Go figure…
NB 2 : Philippe Colin obviously comes from a well known family in Burgundy . The domaine ( from Chassagne ) only started in 2004 .