2 trio's of Chevalier Montrachet : 2007 and 2008

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 .

Interesting notes thanks. What do you think re “enjoy now” in regards to 2007 and 2008?

I would drink 2007 now , 08 will get better overr the next decade(s)

hello,

i have my account some years here, but actually never used it much.

I was there with Herwig and feel exactly the same as he does.

2008 being the better vintage, very persistant, a wine to have.

François

Thanks Herwig. Unfortunately there seems to be wild bottle variation with the 07 Leflaive’s. The good ones are brilliant but there are plenty of advanced ones.

Best Regards
Jeremy

Anyone familiar with Philippe Colin, and where he falls on the Premox Frequency Scale?

Hi François good to see you posting on the board here!

Btw, - think Lalou Bize-Leroy (d’ Auvenay) makes an impressive Chevalier, did she already release 07 or 08 ?