Winemaker Notes
This unctuous and delicate Premier Cru from Puligny-Montrachet, a neighbor of Meursault Les Charmes, combines strength and finesse. All fatty types of fish (turbot, John Dory, catfish) as well as creamy or beurre monté sauces will bring out its elegant roundness. Its complexity asks for rich gourmand dishes. Cellar it for 5-7 years in order to give it time to develop.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes is also showing well after a year in bottle, opening up in the glass with notes of fresh peach, crisp green apple, white flowers and warm pastry. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and chiseled, with a muscular and concentrated core that has gained in depth and a long, precise finish. Rating: 93+
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.