2007 Puligny Montrachet Les Perrieres

Boudot’s 2007 Puligny-Montrachet Les Perrieres is scented with honeysuckle and iris, leading into a palate with prominent peach kernel bitterness playing against persistent floral perfume; and finishing with fresh white peach, lemon, white pepper, and chalk. This lacks quite the density, textural allure, or focus of the Champs-Gain Sauzet, but displays considerable similarity (despite their disparate locations). Lift and brightness are the fortes in this wine that I suspect will be best enjoyed over the next 4-5 years. Gerard Boudot harvested the majority of his fruit during the first week in September, after what he considered to have been one last, critical week of ripening, and believing that it was more important to retain ripe acidity than go for a bit more potential alcohol. He reports having chaptalized selectively – largely at village level and to a very small degree – but the wines top out below 13% finished alcohol. Boudot did a rigorous selection not, he claimed, to remove rot but to cull any under-ripe berries and bunches. All of his 2007s were bottled by March, 2009 after their having spent 5-6 months assembled in tank, a period of passive watchfulness that is among diverse aspects of Boudot’s regimen to have been adjusted in recent years in response to high incidence of wines from the late ‘90s that displayed excessive oxidization after a half dozen years. The regimen of new oak here, incidentally, is 20-25% for the premier crus (with the exception of a bit more on Combettes), and never stands out as a factor detectable in itself. (The wines of this domaine legally belong to two entities, that of Domaine Etienne Sauzet and the company consisting of Boudot and his wife. In addition fruit is acquired for a few bottlings on long-term contract. I have not attempted to call attention to these differences in my notes, and in fact numerous crus represented here have multiple official owners.) Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802

Good pale color. Pure, expressive nose offers peach, lemon, white flowers and nutmeg. Less deep and long than the Referts but nicely brisk, with distinctly delicate notes of crushed stone and minerals. A low-fat style of 2007, finishing youthfully tight and persistent. From the domain's youngest vines, at 22 years of age.