x
  • Country ranking ?

    1 058
  • Producer ranking ?

    41
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Salads

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

The Grand Cru Chevalier Montrachet sits high on the hillside overlooking Le Montrachet, Bâtard Montrachet and the village of Puligny Montrachet far below. 

As a leader of biodynamic viticulture, Domaine Leflaive is renowned for the attention to detail and care that goes in to nourishing each vine from ground to bottle. This organic method of cultivation enriches the soil with plant-based compounds, thus sparing the vines of harmful herbicides and allowing the wine to exude the particularities of the Puligny-Montrachet terroir.

Their Grand Cru wines have consistently scored highly with Wine Advocate, Neal Martin describes them as “wines with audacity and ambition.” Le Montrachet, Batard Montrachet, Bienvenue Batard Montrachet and Chevalier Montrachet dominate Wine Advocate’s top scorers from this domaine, all of which are produced in tiny quantities. It is also worth noting that Neal Martin flags up Domaine Leflaive’s ability to “transcend the limitations of the growing season” – so even in less than favourable vintages their wines are worthy of consideration.

For those looking for an accessible opportunity to taste the top quality white Burgundy produced by this domaine, their Bourgogne Blanc and Mâcon Verzé provide just that.

Domaine Leflaive’s wines age excellently. Allen Meadows has previously noted that one particular vintage of Le Montrachet “even at almost 20 years of age… is still cruising along like it was only 10 as the freshness of the aromas is uncanny.” To help judge when the wines are ready to drink, Domaine Leflaive’s website provides an excellent database of recommendations by wine and by vintage.

Sol argilo-calcaire: 3 parcels in the Chevalier-Montrachet appellation.
Chevalier du bas sud: 6.5 ouvrées (0.69 acre) planted in 1957 and 1958.
Chevalier du bas nord: 21 ouvrées (2.22 acres) planted in 1955, 1964 and 1980.
Chevalier du haut: 19 ouvrées (2.01 acres) planted in 1974.
Surface: 1ha 99a (4.92 acres).

Method of culture: Long, gentle pneumatic pressing, decanting over 24 hours, then racking and running into cask of the must.
Alcoholic fermentation in oak casks, 25% new (maxi 1/3 Vosges, mini 2/3 Allier).
Maturing: after 12 months in cask, the wine is aged 6 months in tank where it is prepared for bottling.
Homeopathic fining and very light filtering if necessary.

Biodynamic: Manual harvesting with grape sorting and optimisation of choice of date through parcel-by-parcel ripeness monitoring.

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Vintage 1994

1994 VINTAGE in Burgundy

Not at all bad. A useful vintage for early to mid-term drinking. An unprecedented change in the weather at the beginning of September with a very wet first week, meant that the harvest was difficult. The quality of the reds was uneven and at Maison Latour, to maintain our standards of high quality, Grand Crus and Premier Crus wines were declassified and blended into their respective village appellations. The wines are perfumed and charming with soft tannins that have a correct balance between acidity and alcohol. They offer quality drinking and are developing well. The quality of the whites is much higher in general, as the Chardonnay is more resistant to unfavourable weather conditions. The wines are stylish with good balance between acidity, body and fruit. The overall quality is good, with a few wines of exceptional quality amongst the Grands Crus.

By the end of August Burgundy was preparing for a vintage worthy to rival some of the greatest years- It had been an exceptionally warm summer. However an unprecedented change in the weather on the 31st of August followed by the coldest and wettest first two weeks of September in over twenty years (8 degrees below seasonal norm) meant that plans and hopes had to be revised.

A mild Spring led to an early 'bud burst (10th April) although vegetation growth was then temporarily halted by a cooler end to April. May temperatures were average and considerable work was undertaken in the vineyards to halt diseases such as mildew, oidium and grey rot, the first signs of which were evident due to the wet conditions. Spraying and good weather in June prevented serious damage. A slightly delayed flowering (between 10th and 20th of June) was followed by fine weather and high temperatures (30 °C. - 33 °C.) only broken by occasional rainstorms refreshing the vines and aiding the "veraison" which had slowed during the dry spell, fortunately, the potentially devastating effect of hail were largely avoided apart from some localized damage in the Côte de Beaune on the 18th of July. 

The hopes of a great vintage were dashed as 3Omm of rain fell on the 31st of August and another lOO mm between the 7th and the 18th of September bringing forward the "ban des vendanges" to the 16th and 21st of September for Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits respectively. 

In summary, some of the 1994 whites will be excellent. Even at this early stage they are perfumed and charming, the lack of maceration in the making of white wine making the rot irrelevant. The reds, particularly the Premier and Grand Crus are already showing considerable elegance and finesse. 

 

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Information

Origin

Beaune, Burgundy

Other wines from this producer

Bâtard-Montrachet

Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet

Bourgogne Blanc

Corton-Charlemagne

Montrachet

Puligny Montrachet

Puligny-Montrachet

Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillon

Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes

Puligny-Montrachet, Clavoillon 1er Cru

Puligny Montrachet Les Folatieres

Puligny-Montrachet Pucelles

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