Whenever one of us has a little tickle in the throat we reach for a wine made by Jean-Marc Roulot, Preferably the ‘Perrières’ for all its minerally goodness but it is not a wine that many of us have on tap so a lieu dit Meursault or even the Bourgogne Blanc usually will do the trick. They are wines that act like a vinous throat lozenge with all their mineral and citrus fast acting components that sooth the throat and restore over-all well being. Heidi was feeling poorly this morning and if you can’t have Roulot the very next best thing for a light cold is Domaine Leflaive, and their brilliant 2010’s pepped Heidi up no end. By the time she downed the Chevalier-Montrachet she was back, on the phone organising lunch and talking with a smoothness and clarity somewhat akin to the wines.
All wines were tasted from tank awaiting bottling save for the ‘Folatières’ which was just bottled last Monday.
2010 Bourgogne: There’s a strong scent of grapefruit. It is fine and quite sophisticated for its level with good length and excellent precision.
2010 Puligny-Montrachet: Ripe peach and citrus blossom aromas. It is shapely yet fine and edgy with beautiful minerally line.
2010 Puligny-Montrachet ‘Clavoillon’ 1er Cru: Quite generous and giving, even at this extremely early stage of its life. There are notes of smoked minerals and honeysuckle. It is relatively round with succulent fruits cut by citrus. It finishes with perhaps more mineral than you often see from this vineyard and has very nice balance.
2010 Puligny-Montrachet ‘Folatières’ 1er Cru: Great finesse, intensity and balance with pure mineral and white flower aromas. It has near perfect shape in the mouth and flavours that vacillate between citrus and floral. It builds with intense sappy intensity and there’s a big puff of chalk on the extraordinarily long finish.
2010 Puligny-Montrachet ‘Pucelles’ 1er Cru: On the nose there are ripe orchard fruits with a strong scent of citrus blossom. In the mouth this has Grand Cru weight and richness. It is intense, compact and linear with a high glycerol sheath that protects the gums from all of the rocky detail. It is super long and quite super wine.
2010 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet: This wine had just been racked and was very shy. You can feel the muscular, sinewy structure, you can sense the ultimate potential but the fruits are hidden for now. It is racy, dense and chewy with incredible intensity and length and chalky dry extract that gets into your gums and obliterates every bit of saliva in the mouth.
2010 Bâtard-Montrachet: Leflaive have four parcels of Bâtard and the wine has not been blended yet so we got to taste the parcel from just above Bienvenues. It was amazing to see the difference a few meters make as this was typical Bâtard with its big shoulders and rich, broad fruits. It had plenty of peach, mineral, honeysuckle and citrus with good shape and muscle. For its sheer size, concentration and intensity it has great energy and balance and is absolutely fantastic wine.
2010 Chevalier-Montrachet: Mineral from beginning to end. This is a wine of strict line, it is intense and packing a huge amount of citrus and minerality. There’s good fat, superb rocky detail and incredible finesse and poise. Simply brilliant!
We have been fortunate enough to have tasted annually at Domaine Leflaive for the past 6 years and these 2010’s are without doubt the best set of wines across the board we have encountered at this special address.
Cheers
Jeremy
