Jean-Marc Boillot Puligny Montrachet Referts Premier Cru 2017
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
Wine &
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Winemaker Notes
Comes from vines an average of 60 years old planted on 1.5 acres. This wine undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation and 11 months without racking with weekly bâtonnage. Aging takes place in 25 in 30% of new barrels.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Fermented and aged in 30% new French oak, the 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Referts is a brilliant white that has both power and elegance. Terrific notes of stone fruits, wet stone, brioche, and hints of white flower all emerge from the glass, followed by a rounded, impressively textured white that hits all the right notes. A touch of honeyed citrus develops with time in the glass and it has good acidity, yet it’s nicely balanced by ample fruit. While it has beautiful upfront charm today, it’s going to evolve gracefully given its balance.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Referts unfurls with a classy bouquet of green orchard fruit, waxy lemon rind, blanched almonds and oak vanillin. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, broad and fleshy, with an ample core of succulent fruit, ripe acids and an open-knit mid-palate that segues into a more precise, nicely defined finish. This is a charming, deceptively immediate Referts that is already hard to resist, though its terrific balance suggests that it may well also prove quite long-lived.
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Wine & Spirits
A voluptuous young Puligny, this wine’s concentration and density forms a potent wall of flavor. Look closely and you might find scents of white roses and green tea, hints of smoked meats, yellow apple, lemon… The more you return to the wall, the more layers of fruit and lees it reveals. If you can afford several bottles, this would be fascinating to follow as it ages.
Jean-Marc Boillot was one of the younger generation in Burgundy who was determined to improve his family’s wines. In 1984, after vinifying 13 vintages at the family’s domaine, Henri Boillot, Jean-Marc walked out in protest, intent on producing highly concentrated, rich, and ripe wines. He became the winemaker for Olivier Leflaive for the next four years and at the same time produced wines from 5-acres of vineyards, bottled under his own label. The wines impressed Boillot’s grandfather, who bequest half his vineyard to Jean-Marc. Boillot runs his domaine from his grandfather Henri Boillot’s house and cellars in the village of Pommard. Jean-Marc’s maternal grandfather was the late Etienne Sauzet, from whom he also inherited exceptional vineyards.
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.