2005 Chevalier Montrachet
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Tasting notes
Full yellow with a gold tinge. Very ripe aromas of dried yellow stone fruits, pineapple and chalky minerality. Then round, silky and seamless, offering lovely integrated acidity but relying even more on its minerality for balance (Morandière described this wine as "a less extreme version of the 2015"). At once tactile and smooth but still backward, offering mouthfilling flavors of apricot, citrus fruits and acacia flower that gained in depth as the wine took on oxygen. A very rich style but without any easy sweetness, this wine may well enjoy a 30-year lifespan. (13.7% alcohol; 3.22 pH; the harvest began on September 16 but the Chevalier-Montrachet came in on the 20th after a few days with a north wind that concentrated sugars and acids; still, this was a drought year with a blockage of maturity, according to Brice de la Morandière)
Critic scores
Average Score
Allen Meadows, Burghound
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
When you happen upon a pristine bottle of Leflaive's 2005 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, it's a terrific wine that clearly rans among the white Burgundies of the vintage, and this was just such a bottle. Offering up a stunning bouquet of confit lemons, honeycomb, vine blossom and freshly baked bread, it's full-bodied, ample and multidimensional, with incredible concentration, a firm chassis of structuring dry extract, lively acids and a long finish that still displays considerable youthful drive. This is a muscular, imposing Chevalier that nods to the 1989 vintage in style, though if anything it's better balanced. Today, while it's still a youthful wine, it's beginning to arrive at early maturity, and it's as pleasurable as it is impressive. Sadly, however, I have encountered oxidized bottles of the 2005, and this perfect example only made that more poignant. By the numbers, it possesses 13.7% alcohol with a pH of 3.22.
About the producer
Domaine Leflaive is arguably Burgundy’s most famous white wine producer, setting the benchmark for top-quality Chardonnay in the Côte de Beaune and the world. The property is the largest land-owner in Puligny-Montrachet, with extensive holdings in the village and five hectares of Grand Cru vineyards