Winemaker Notes
This climat is located in the town of Puligny just north of the Bâtard and Bienvenues Bâtard Montrachet with the same altitude and soil. This climat is often considered as the best Premier in Puligny and can rival its neighbors in some vintages where its minerality will contrast with the intensity of the two Bâtards.
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
Medium deep, pale yellow in colour. Plenty of fruit is immediately apparent on the nose, but seems a little more backward, less in harmony today. A mix of ripe citrus fruits, lemon, orange and grapefruit, so ripe enough. Then the 2022 Pucelles grows into what I would expect: really quite complex and with a zesty finale. Superb grace and length, with further volumes of fruit reappearing at the back. Keeps on going. Grand cru quality on the palate, and, taking the slight recalcitrance of the bouquet as a temporary issue, I am happy to award the full five stars to what should become a grand Pucelles. Barrel Sample: 94-96
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles reasserts its traditional role as Leflaive's dominant premier cru this year, wafting from the glass with aromas of pear, clear honey, white flowers and orange oil, framed by a deft touch of youthful reduction. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and seamless, it's pure and enveloping, with a sweet core of fruit, lively acids and a long, precise finish.
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Vinous
The 2022 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er Cru has a subtle menthol note in the background, indicative of the concentration bestowed by the growing season. There's a hint of exoticism, yet it doesn't overwhelm the terroir expression. The palate is fresh and vibrant, with a wonderful umami sensation and razor-sharp acidity (incredible in a warm vintage). It is harmonious with a lightly spiced finish and traces of Vervane and white pepper on the aftertaste.
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Wine Spectator
Ethereal aromas and flavors of white flowers, lemon and apple grace this charming, fluid white, which picks up a stony mineral element as it plays out effortlessly on the long aftertaste, showing terrific harmony.
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.