Winemaker Notes
his is the largest 1er Cru of Puligny. Looking closely at a map of the 1er Cru, you’ll notice patches of vineyards declassified to the village level. During soil work at the end of the 19th century, the nature of the soil was artificially changed with the addition of foreign soil types. The name has two potential origins: either the “folles terres” (crazy land) because of the numerous landslides that happened in the past after heavy rain, or the “feu follet” (Will-o’-the-wisp), an atmospheric phenomenon which creates a “ghost light” that appears above a humid area at night.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A laserlike backbone drives this racy white, along with flavors of lime blossoms, lemon, vanilla and smoky mineral. Clean and incisive, with fine intensity on the long aftertaste of citrus, mineral and baking spices.
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Vinous
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières 1er Cru has slightly richer fruit than the Clavaillon. Scents of wild honey infuse the citrus fruit, again, with plenty of energy and tension coming through. The palate is nicely balanced with white peach and apricot, a keen thread of acidity, and a very harmonious, lingering and seductive finish. What a beautiful Folatières!
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Jasper Morris
A touch more colour and certainly more energy. Just a light gunflint reduction on pleasingly yellow fruit, yet with detail and subtlety. Here there is cream in the middle compared to the leaner clean cut Clavoillon. Softer at the finish but the generosity is balanced. Tangy touch to finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières has also turned out very nicely, mingling aromas of pear and orange oil with notions of freshly baked bread, struck match and warm stones. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and seamless, it's bright and ethereal, with a long, saline finish. Rating: 95+
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
A source of some of the finest, juicy, silky and elegantly floral Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune, Puligny-Montrachet lies just to the north of Chassagne-Montrachet, a village with which it shares two of its Grands Crus vineyards: Le Montrachet itself and Bâtard-Montrachet. Its other two, which it owns in their entirety, are Chevalier-Montrachet and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet. And still, some of the finest white Burgundy wines come from the prized Premiers Crus vineyards of Puligny-Montrachet. To name a few, Les Pucelles, Le Clavoillon, Les Perrières, Les Referts and Les Combettes, as well as the rest, lie northeast and up slope from the Grands Crus.
Farther to the southeast are village level whites and the hamlet of Blagny where Pinot Noir grows best and has achieved Premier Cru status.