2017 Puligny Montrachet Les Combettes

Full bottle 1,314 g. From a 0.26-hectare plot on alluvium and brown limestone 'on a pearly slab substrate of the Callovian era' on the north-eastern border wih Meursault. 75% of the vines are more than 80 years old. 25% were replanted in the 1990s. Pale gold. Quite evolved and characteristically mealy on the nose with notes of candle wax and lime. Very assertive palate entry without acidity being especially dominant. I was worried about serving this with vintage-dated sardines, thinking it would be too fine and sleek, but I think it will stand up to them fine. Quite a rich finish. Definitely not the crisp, austere idiom of Puligny but a bold one that has a reasonably persistent finish. Again, rather old-fashioned but there is very definitely a market for this sort of classicism. (JR)