2007 Puligny Montrachet Les Pucelles

Pale, green-tinged yellow. Sexy, complex nose melds lemon, hazelnut, crushed stone and steely minerality. Then more bracing in the mouth than the nose suggests; a step up in flavor intensity and grip over the Folatieres and Clos de la Garenne but still quite tightly wound. Finishes long and firm.

Bright, pale yellow. Subtle aromas of ripe peach, mirabelle and lemon. Concentrated and larger-scaled than the Folatieres but less harmonious today, with the acidity not yet integrated. In a drier, more backward style, and a bit youthfully brutal on the end.

Pernot’s 2007 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles smells of ripe melon and peach, along with candied ginger and lemon rind. Taking to the next level the lush, forward fruit and silken texture that characterized the other in this collection, it persists as well in preserving a sense of primary juiciness as well as transparency to chalky, savory crustacean, citrus zest, and spicy complexities in its long, seductive finish. There is more of the energy here that characterize the very best wines of the vintage than in Pernot’s other outstanding premier crus of the vintage. I would anticipate 8-10 years of intellectual as well as sensual satisfaction. ||Veteran Paul Pernot followed up his superb though alcoholically outsized 2006s with an equally impressive collection of 2007s that he characterizes as more generous than but in many respects similar to his 2004s. He harvested most of his Chardonnay between the 6th and mid September. This site north of Folatieres is monopolized by Pernot and the Jadot-owned Duc de Magenta domaine.||Various import agents, including Jeanne Marie de Champs Selection, Domaines et Saveurs, Beaune; fax 011-33-3-80-25-04-81 and Peter Vezan, Paris; fax 011 33 1 42 55 42 93; as well as various independent importers including Louis/Dressner Selections, New York, NY; tel. (212) 334 8191 eRobertParker.com.December, 2009