2005 Montrachet Grand Cru
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Tasting notes
The 2005 Montrachet Grand Cru has quite a deep color for a ten-year-old Montrachet. The nose feels a little forward with hazelnut and brioche scents, a touch of warm gravel. The palate is medium-bodied with a touch of shaved ginger, then later rosewater and apricot. This does not have the verve and the nervosité I was expecting, and frankly, it is blown away by Jean-François Coche's 2005 Corton-Charlemagne. That said, it does improve and seems to muster more energy and tension, but if you stripped away the label, I don't think I would be jumping up and down with excitement without knowing how rare or expensive this is.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
There are just one and a half barrels of this. Extremely full and majestic and really commanding on the nose. Amazingly concentrated and powerful without being either sweet or obviously alcoholic. (I wish I could have tasted DRC’s Montrachet…!) So pure and precise – somehow both concentrated and delicate with no fatness but such excitement… Great finesse and a real peacock’s tail of flavours that revealed themselves on the finish. Exciting, tingling, not at all heavy – majestic indeed. Leflaive don’t necessarily always pick Le Montrachet last but they do try to pick it on a ‘fruit day’, I was told. (JR)
Wonderfully complex nose combines stone fruits, flint, minerals, clove, vanilla and earth. Remarkably solid, palate-saturating wine boasts almost painful intensity of mineral, fruit and smoky oak flavors. Still a bit youthfully imploded, and not the broadest wine in the cellar today, but then true Montrachet also takes its time to unfold. Subtle, resounding finish boasts terrific verve. Potentially great. There are just one and a half barrels of this juice (the full barrel is new).
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