This is a ridiculous question, I realize. QPR when it comes to Montrachet?! Please…
But I recently got it into my head that I want to try to complete the Five Whites of Curnosky (Vinum et Vita: Revisiting Curnonsky's Famous Five). After fall shipments I will have Yquem, Chateau Chalon, and Coulee de Serrant. Of course, I’m missing the most expensive ones: Chateau Grillet and Montrachet. There’s not much choice when it comes to Grillet, but there’s a huge variety when it comes to Montrachet.
Do you have a recommendation for a Montrachet that is on the cheaper side (for Montrachet, of course) that also has a decent chance of drinking nicely and not premoxed? I can’t afford DRC or Leroy, or Leflaive. But I do want something that is going to be enjoyable.
Depends on what you want. I don’t have very many years of experience, but I’ve become a bit of a Monty whore. Do you want to drink something that tastes pretty damn good and says Le Montrachet on the label so you can feel like you are drinking the best white wine in the world? There’s some value stuff that is sadly less of a value today, but still cheaper: Sauzet, Bouchard, the Gagnards, Drouhin Marquis. I think the best value for these producers is to pay the extra premium to buy the best vintages as that’s when they really show all they have.
Or on the other hand do you really want the best that Monty has to offer? That electricity doesn’t come cheap, but I think it’s worth every penny. In that vein Lafon is the best QPR as the $3500ish is significantly less than Ramonet, Leflaive and DRC.
Now the absolute best QPR is Sarl Garaudet since it’s DRC juice at a fraction of the price. But good luck finding it!
If you are willing to let it age (or can source a 2010) I would highly recommend Bouchard. Under Diam (since 2010?) and very reliable. But it isn’t terribly showy or exciting young. Ramonet, Sauzet and yes, DRC all have much more bottle variation. For the “top” wines I would agree with Andrew that Lafon is your best bet (utterly great since 2014). But I’m guessing it’s 3-6 bottles of Bouchard per Lafon price wise!
Friends,
I had the LEFLAIVE MONTRACHET in 91 and 92. At the very beginning after they had bought the parcel. The LEFLAIVE wines have, in the meantime, become excessively expensive but, even worse, from time to time disappointing. i had a PUCELLES 2015 yesterday and it did not deliver at all. Being a top premier cru I wondered what went wrong there? Too soon to drink? I had fantastic 2015 experiences with SAUZET (even MONTRACHET), Bruno Clair’s CORTON CHARLEMAGNE, MOREAU’s CHEVALIER MONTRACHET and RAMONET’s RUCHOTTES. All fantastic wines already.
SINCERELY JOHAN
The one Montrachet I’ve had, a 2010 Vincent Girardin, was outstanding, but I have nothing to which I can compare it. The cork was about as dense as the heart of a neutron star, and Don C’s dinner evaluations suggest the risk of premox for Girardin is pretty low.
The entire concept of Curnosky’s 5 culinary wines is spectacularly outdated. That said, it really depends what you want. Montrachet is an interesting vineyard, because its inclusion in Curnosky’s list is indicative of it being quite ripe. DRC Montrachet, for example, is a wine made in a style most people don’t expect - almost in a way that suggests RS. A friend of mine went to a big DRC Montrachet vertical this year and hadn’t had the wines before - he was really surprised at how ripe the wines were*.
If you’re looking for a wine in that style, Drouhin’s Marquis de Laguiche or Sauzet is probably your best bet. Ideally you’d get Lafon, but those are not cheap. It’s always interesting tasting that wine out of barrel next to Lafon’s other wines - you really get a sense of how big and fruit forward Montrachet is, especially considering Lafon’s wines are not particularly reductive or shy.
If you’re looking for something more restrained (which isn’t necessarily what Montrachet is known for), Lamy-Pillot does a good rendition if you can find it - the 2011 was great a few years back. Jadot and Bouchard both make wines in a somewhat similar vein - I tend to prefer Bouchard. As always, for older wines premox is an issue, though Bouchard’s and Jadot’s have been under DIAM for some time.
*Honestly reminds me a bit of the botrytis vintages of Raveneau which some argue are terroir appropriate and some call undrinkable. YMMV.
I’ve had good experiences with Bouchard and Jacques Prieur on the less expensive side of Montrachet. I’d also bet recent vintage Jadot would be good and relatively inexpensive.
Curious to learn more about this comment @Andrew_K . Is the domaine adjacent to DRC? Didn’t find a lot on the Paul Garaudet web site or any other info. Thanks.
A pair of '95 Jadot Montrachet just sold at a Zachys Z-collections auction for $250 per or thereabouts. That’s from the period when premox started to arise but before it affected Jadot. That’s the kind of stuff I would look for. Early '90s vintages have even less ox risk and will be cheaper than current releases to boot - '90-'93 white burgundies can slide through auctions pretty cheap. Of course that’s because some have grown too old naturally, premox aside, but Montrachet is nigh pointless without age, so I’d rather risk something too old than something too young at 2x-4x the price.
Good point. I had a late 90s Jadot Monty at the Heritage Blind Tasting Competition finals in Vegas a few years ago and it was tied with the 2000 Latour as my WOTN, and there were a lot of great wines (eight in competition plus what people brought to drink afterwards). No premox.
Fair point Keith, but at this point anything pre-pre-mox is going to be 30 years old, and that is pushing it even for Montrachet in most vintages unless you have impeccable verified provenance (yes a good Montrachet can easily go 30+ years, but so many top bottles in the secondary market today have been traded multiple times and moved around a lot). That said- 1995 Jadot would be a nice choice, as would the 1993 vintage. The 1993 whites in general have proven to have remarkable staying power.
To the OP- if you are not able to go that route, then I would suggest doing something very young as Montrachet usually shuts down pretty hard, and so you are best to open the right one young in the right vintage or get something at least 10 years old.
I think your best bet would be 2020 Drouhin Montrachet or 2020 Amiot Montrachet (both of which I consider top tier). The 2020 vintage is well suited to Montrachet in general and I have had a number of whites and reds- all of which have been very generous, if still primary, in tastings over the past few months. 2019 might work too. I would advise against 2018- the Drouhin version was especially tight at release- and 2017 you are likely to hit something already shutting down.
You can get either for less than $1,500- which, let’s face it is QPR for Montrachet these days- and both are likely to be approachable young. Maybe Bouchard- but I have had the 2014 and 2010 in recent years and both were pretty tight, so while theirs has improved dramatically, I do not have a data point that suggests it is a good one to open young. I would not even think about opening a Ramonet, Jadot, Lafon, Leflaive or Sauzet young. DRC tends to show well in youth, but while I would argue relative QPR there- it is clearly not a good option unless that kind of money is meaningless to you.
When you have it- I suggest tasting a bit at first opening and then revisiting periodically for at least 2 hours, preferably 3-4.
