2009 Louis Jadot Domaine des Heritiers Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles Grand Cru

The 2009 Chevalier-Montrachet Les Demoiselles is utterly seamless. As inviting as the Chevalier is today, it is also very, very young and years away from offering its finest drinking. White flowers, pears and slate inform the taut, energetic finish. The personality of the vintage comes through, but there is more than enough buffering acidity to balance the overtness of the fruit. Anticipated maturity: 2014+. Once again, I tasted with Jacques Lardiere and Frederic Barnier during a marathon session that lasted several hours. Lardiere has been on a whirlwind tour celebrating his last year at Jadot before his long-announced retirement, but I will believe he is stepping down when I see it. Lifers like Lardiere simply don’t retire. As for the wines, Jadot’s 2010s are unqualified successes across the board. Of course, the wines from the most prestigious appellations are often compelling, but frankly I find just as much joy in discovering the many fabulous Burgundies from unheralded villages that are sprinkled throughout this portfolio. Lardiere and Barnier first thought 2010 was better for reds than whites, but that gap has narrowed recently in their opinion. Yields were down 15-20% for the whites (less than the reds), because of the December, 2009 frost and irregular flowering the following spring. A number of wines were chaptalized approximately 0.5%. The 2010 whites were bottled between February and March 2012. I also tasted a handful of 2009s and 2008s, which I have included here as part of my goal to revisit wines from bottle on a regular basis. I continue to be thrilled by the Jadot 2009 whites, while the 2008s I tasted are mostly equally succesful. Jadot fans know that this venerable winery is composed of several brands; Maison Louis Jadot, Domaine Louis Jadot, Heritiers de Louis Jadot, Domaine Duc de Magenta and Domaine Gagey. In the interest of simplicity, I have listed all of the wines in this section under Domaine/Maison Jadot. There are two cases in which a wine is made by more than one of the labels, in which case the corresponding tasting note indicates which wine was tasted; they are the Chassagne-Montrachet premier cru Garenne and the Puligny-Montrachet premier cru Folatieres. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756

Pale straw-yellow color. Utterly captivating nose combines white plum, anisette, crushed stone, medicinal herbs, fresh hazelnut, almond, marzipan and white pepper. Powerful, dense and seamless, with terrific fruit intensity and violet lift. Beautifully balanced, suave, rich Chevalier-Montrachet with with a very long, mounting finish. Lardiere prefers this wine to the 2008 and believes it will age for a long time.

Fine, gentle nose followed by a sluice of concentrated lemon fruit and plenty of mineral backup. Austere, lofty, aristocratic. (RH)