2007 Puligny Montrachet

Representing an assemblage of fruit from seven diverse parcels and nearly as many separately-vinified lots, the Sauzet 2007 Puligny Montrachet offers a bitter-sweet aromatic melange of iris, ripe peach, and piquant peach kernel. Exhibiting the tension and interchange Boudot considers characteristic for this vintage (especially in Puligny) between fruit and chalky, saline, and otherwise mineral aspects, this undeniably takes some of its interplay from the juxtaposition of richer material from the environs of Enseignieres and Batard with fruit from stonier, sparer ground near the Meursault border. Suggestions of grapefruit zest and peach skin add a sense of invigoration, although fruit pit and alkaline elements lend a slightly bitter and austere final note. This is significantly more polished than the corresponding Chassagne Sauzet, and I would expect it to perform well for at least the next 3-4 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