1996 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

Pale copper-tinged yellow. Bright fruit aromas of peach and apricot are complicated by nutty pastry shell and a suggestion of oyster shell. In an atypically ungiving style for a Leflaive wine, with penetrating acidity and a note of lemon zest still keeping the wine's fruit and moderate flesh under wraps. With its distinct malic edge, this is not exactly a fun drink today, but its long, echoing, stony finish suggests that it may yet provide more pleasure. And it's certainly vibrant at nearly 23 years of age. This was a year of slow ripening and stubbornly high acid levels, and Morandière noted that the malolactic fermentation of the Chevalier-Montrachet was late and difficult, only finishing during the second winter. Then-winemaker Pierre Morey did more lees stirring for the '96s than for the '95s in an attempt to enrich the wines, but it's clear to see that this was a vintage with considerably less stuffing than its older sibling. Acidity at bottling was 7.11 grams per liter (expressed as tartaric), the second highest of the tasting following the 2008. I can imagine it going on for another decade or two. (13.75% alcohol; 3.12 pH; the harvest began on September 21)

This was a fine performance for Leflaive's 1996 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, a complex but reserved wine that opens in the glass with aromas of citrus oil, confit lemon, beeswax, dried white flowers and candied peel, with comparatively little in the way of reductive top notes that distinguished it even merely a handful of years ago. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, satiny-textured and concentrated, built around an incisive line of acidity and still decidedly tight-knit and compact in profile. This bottle is an example of a 1996 white Burgundy that is aging very gracefully, but if there's one criticism, it's that the wine can't match the plenitude of the great wines in this tasting. That may come with time, but I suspect the 1996 Chevalier will always be more impressive than it is pleasurable. By the numbers, this wine possesses 13.75% alcohol and a pH of 3.12—perhaps its full potential would have been unleashed, as my neighbor Michel Bettane opined, had it been harvested a week later?

Four beautiful wines from Leflaive are poured with the first course; a side-by-side comparison of the Chevalier and Bâtard across vintages 1996 and 2002. The 1996 Chevalier opens with a classic Leflaive bouquet heavy on reduction. Powerful and intense, the 1996 develops beautifully with time in the glass while retaining all of its essential qualities. A host of lime, lemon and white flowers linger on the long, expressive finish.