2001 Puligny Montrachet

The tightly-wound 2001 Puligny-Montrachet has quartz-like aromas and a lean, fresh, lemony character. Light-bodied tight, and crystalline, it will need to put on weight to reach the upper reaches of its score range. Drink it over the next 2-3 years. To Pierre Morey, Domaine Leflaive’s winemaker, “2001 was not an easy vintage, but it made our work that much more interesting. Our vines faced rot, hail, heat (that burned some grapes), cold, then the onset of botrytis, making us sort grape by grape.” He went on to add, “so we knew on August 3rd, the day after the hail storm, that it was a sorting vintage . . . our next surprise was the acid balance, in which we found we had normal tartaric numbers but high malic acid, making the wines difficult to taste. We opted for an extended elevage, to get the noses to express themselves and the bodies to fill out.” According to Morey, all of the domaine’s Puligny parcels were struck by hail, having lost 20% of their production of Folatieres, slightly less in other parcels. Yields, though lower than in both 1999 and 2000, came in between 40 and 45 hectoliters per hectare, after the work on the sorting tables. When I asked Mr. Morey, a deeply honest man, whether he liked the 2001s, he said, “it’s not my favorite vintage of the last 10 years, but an interesting one, I’m intrigued to see how they will age and when they will be at their best.” Importer: Wilson-Daniels, St. Helena, CA; tel. (707) 963-9661

The tightly-wound 2001 Puligny-Montrachet has quartz-like aromas and a lean, fresh, lemony character. Light-bodied tight, and crystalline, it will need to put on weight to reach the upper reaches of its score range. Drink it over the next 2-3 years. Jun 2003, www.robertparker.com

Pale, bright yellow. Steely aromas of apple, spices and mint. Fat and peachy in the mouth, with complicating notes of spice and butter. Offers very good fruit and length for village wine.