2007 Domaine Henri Boillot Criots Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

As is typical, this is aromatically quite ripe yet what is not typical is the greater elegance asthis seems unusually refined and admirably pure with an orchard fruit and bee's wax nose that is in perfect keeping with thepowerful, dense and muscled big-bodied flavors that possess remarkable amounts of dry extract that completely buffers thefirm acid spine on the almost painfully intense and stunningly long finish that is absolutely bone dry. A remarkably good Criots that should reward up to a decade of cellar time. 2015+

Aromas of superripe peach, honey and smoke. A powerful yellow-fruit bomb on the palate, with the sugar/acid balance of perfectly ripe peach and apricot. Comes across as sweet yet dry, with strong finishing spice and a texture that reminded me of a red wine.

Boillot’s 2007 Criots-Batard-Montrachet smells of Normandy cider, quince, peach, pistachio extract, iris, and narcissus. Wafting and persistent in florality; invigoratingly tinged by the tartness of fruit skin; suffused with chalk and meat stock-like in its marrowy richness, this taps a deep pool of fruit, culminating in a gloriously tenacious finish. I suspect one will be well-rewarded by this for a dozen or more years. ||As explained in my report in issue 180, Henri Boillot’s domaine is now legally known by his name rather than that of his father Jean, and is thus eponymous with his negociant business. Furthermore, given what seems to be a stylistic convergence as well as given Boillot's own preference in presenting his wines this year, I have folded together the coverage of these two entities, noting in the text of my notes those wines that come from the domaine. Boillot did not begin picking until the second week in September, harvesting fruit that he reported required only occasional, minimal chaptalization and had higher tartaric than malic acid, in contrast to their proportions in 2008. Since Boillot managed to achieve his ideals of “precision and minerality” even in the ripe 2006 vintage, it will come as no surprise that they have been brilliantly achieved in 2007. A preference for volume of healthy lees rather than their stirring and (as mentioned in my report on his 2006s) the utilization of 350-liter barrels rather than barriques are surely among the factors that permit these wines to marry richness with refreshment and clarity. On the other hand, even the wines of lesser appellation that receive less barrel exposure are still given extended time on their fine lees in tank before bottling, Boillot being a believer that "time is of the essence" to great white Burgundy, not in the proverbial sense but rather in that of taking enough if it. eRobertParker.com.December, 2009