Winemaker Notes
On the palate, this wine is full and rich from the start. The mid-palate is full with notes of apricot, peach, a light touch of citrus and a little exotic fruit. The acidity is present but well enveloped by the richness of the wine.
Professional Ratings
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Jasper Morris
The famous plot in 2021 because of the success in protecting the vines from frost when all around failed. The recipe was to light the bougies early and place them at double density, and replace if necessary during the night. This is really gorgeous. With a manged opulence, a perfect thread of mineral backbone, a finish that makes one salivate. A level of concentration over and above Perrières. Consider a 5th star – and say yes! Drink from 2026-2033.
Barrel Sample: 93-96 -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As I wrote shortly after it was bottled, the 2021 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes is one of the sites that Germain's team was able to thoroughly protect from the spring frosts (I remember driving past the parcel 10 days later, with it and Domaine Leflaive's vines standing out as the solitary island of green amidst a sea of desiccated buds), and the result is a wine that transcends the vintage. Offering up notes of waxy citrus rind, buttery pastry, iodine and white flowers, it's medium- to full-bodied, satiny and layered, with racy acids, chalky structuring extract and a long, saline finish.
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Vinous
The 2021 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru has a succinct bouquet with scents of lemon verbena, crushed stone and light chamomile. Fine mineralité . The palate is fresh and vibrant, crisp and focused with a keen thread of acidity, harmonious with irresistible flecks of apricot decorating the poised finish. All that said, returning after 10 minutes, it does lose a bit of race, prompting me to dock a point.
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.