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  • Country ranking ?

    943
  • Producer ranking ?

    13
  • Decanting time

    -
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Salads

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Vintage 2012

2012 was beset by unusual weather that didn’t spare the vines! A mild winter, spring-like March, cool spring with frosts, summer-like May, cooler, wetter June, a variable summer with heatwaves, hail and storms… Because of the cold damp spring, some of the vine flowers didn’t set and form fruit, there was millerandage (where the flowers aren’t fully fertilised and give small berries) and high pressure from mildew and odium. Temperatures went ri...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

There are some times when you need to throw out the rules – throw out the expectations of what should be good and what should be the best and go with what tastes good.
 
This is one of them.
 
I’ve not always been a massive fan of Oliver Leflaive wines, but this 2012 Puligny Montrachet looked simply magnificent yesterday, sticking out amongst the 30 odd white Burgundies around it (right up to Grand Cru level they were too).
 
The reason why this village-level white worked is that the balance is near perfect. Immediately it looked more powerful, more Puligny than the premier cru Puligny around it, yet without losing minerality. It was attractive because it was more moderate and less overwrought, simply by way of being a village wine – with more controlled oak, fresher fruit and, importantly. more terroir expression to drive it along.
 
It’s easy to get hooked into the idea that the Grand Cru/1er Cru/Village/Bourgogne pyramid is the absolute arbiter of quality, but sometimes the most balanced, most enjoyable wines don’t agree. Less is indeed more, and less expectations can deliver more enjoyment.
 
Arguably this doesn’t quite have the complexity, power and grace of the more fancied cru bottlings, but that balance is just impossible not to appreciate. A goldilocks wine, even.

  • 94p
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Information

Origin

Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy

Other wines from this producer

Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet

Bourgogne Blanc Les Sétilles

Bourgogne Rouge

Chablis Vaudesir

Chassagne-Montrachet

Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot

Chassangne-Montrachet, Clos St. Marc 1er Cru

Chevalier-Montrachet

Corton-Charlemagne Grand cru

Côte de Beaune Villages

Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet

Le Montrachet

Meursault

Meursault 1er cru Poruzots

Meursault 1er Cru Sous Le Dos d’Âne

Meursault Genevrières

Meursault Meix Chavaux

Puligny-Montrachet 1er cru Champ Canet

Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Folatières

Puligny-Montrachet Les Champ-Gains

Puligny-Montrachet Les Meix

Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles

Santenay

Volnay 1er Cru Mitans

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