2007 Puligny Montrachet Les Demoiselles

From more than 40 year old vines in the tiny vineyard abutting both Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet that he shares with Michel Colin and Colin's sons, Amiot’s 5 barrels' worth of 2007 Puligny-Montrachet Demoiselles smells strikingly of high-toned framboise distillate and holly berry, along with white peach and honeysuckle. Correspondingly bright and succulent on the palate; dense and texturally fine-grained; this generates real electricity in its exchange of citrus, high-toned fruit esters, and invigorating salinity, faint bitterness, and chalkiness. It should merit up to 6-8 years of cellaring. Thierry Amiot was one of a number of growers who admitted to me that their choice of starting date for the 2007 Chardonnay harvest was inevitably influenced by the presence of a crew who had just finished bringing in a ridiculously early crop of Pinot Noir, and that perhaps in the first days this picking might have been a bit too early for optimal Chardonnay flavor. Still, better that than any botrytis: Amiot’s 2007s are far more impressive than had been his collection of 2006s, which suffered occasional diffuse, volatile, or rough patches, and were really only convincing in the upper-echelons. The 30-50% new wood used here was once again evident, as are the results of batonnage (omitted in 2006). Finished alcohol levels this year do not exceed 13.5%, which is lower than in other recent Amiot vintages. As usual, village wines were bottled at one year and premier crus along with the reds, after 16 months. Importer; Kermit Lynch Wine Merchants, Berkeley, CA; tel (510) 524-1524