2001 Puligny Montrachet

The 2001 Puligny-Montrachet was undergoing the bottling process when I visited the estate, it was therefore tasted both from tank and bottle. White flowers and lemons can be found in its nose. A light to medium-bodied, supple, satin-textured wine, it displays juicy pear and citrus flavors. Drink it over the next 4 years. To Jacques Carillon, this estate’s winemaker, “the 2001s are wines of richness and fat, with round personalities and excellent balance. They have a great deal in common with the 2000s.” This highly-respected estate’s winemaking philosophies include leaving the wines to ferment on their lees for a year in barrel, then racking them with only the finest lees into stainless steel vats in the August following the harvest. Six months later, in February, the wines are fined, then racked again in March before being filtered and bottled. The estate’s village offering has a slightly shorter elevage, and is bottled in January. Importers: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802; Neal Rosenthal Wine Merchant, New York, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990; Wine Markets International, Woodbury, NY; tel. (516) 364-1850; and, for the “Cuvee Nicole”, the same wine as the village Puligny-Montrachet, Kysela Pere et Fils, Fran Kysela, Winchester, VA; tel. (540) 722-9228