2018 Chevalier Montrachet

Revisited from bottle, the 2018 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru is showing superbly, unfurling in the glass with inviting aromas of brioche, crisp green orchard fruit, yellow apples, citrus oil and nutmeg. Medium to full-bodied, fleshy but precise, it's charming and expressive, showing more of its cards than the 2017 rendition did at the same age, while remaining less overtly muscular than the powerful 2015. This will offer a broad drinking window, as it's already quite demonstrative. As I've written before, this bottling hails from the three terraces on the hillside above Bouchard's La Cabotte, their bottling from the latter—which adjoins Montrachet itself—being more muscular and powerful, whereas this cuvée is finer-boned and more ethereal.

Naughty heavy bottle. Ripe, butterscotch and citrus nose, but cut through with a fine line of acidity and marked flintiness on the palate that counterbalances the richness. Great intensity through the long, spiced finish, though with just a touch of warmth. (TJ)

The 2018 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru has an impressive bouquet of mineral-rich citrus fruit, smoke, honeysuckle and jasmine aromas, complex and alluring. The palate is fresh and vibrant with crisp acidity, with plenty of tangerine and grapefruit notes, but it is the mineralité and tension that really elevate this Grand Cru. For once, this might outperform the La Cabotte.