Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Jasper Morris
Pale lemon yellow. An idea of velvet on the nose, a puree of fresh apples, a real concentration of pure white fruit on the palate with a rinse of lemon. Fine tension, nothing too oppressive in the weight, nuanced throughout. I wonder if the Bienvenues has quite the same length as the Pucelles. Yet the wine is detailed and surprisingly stony, Grand Cru from first sniff. Barrel Sample: 94-96
-
Wine Spectator
Sleek and racy yet packed with peach, apple, lemon, hazelnut and citronella aromas and flavors. Builds nicely on the palate while gaining in intensity to the long aftertaste, infused with butter, pastry, spice and mineral notes. This just keeps coming at you, offering finesse rather than power.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Unwinding in the glass with notes of pear, white flowers, hazelnuts and spices, Leflaive's 2022 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is medium to full-bodied, satiny and seamless, with a cool, harmonious, integrated profile and a long, mouthwatering finish. There's a touch more density here than in the Pucelles, but the two are quite similar in style this year. 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.