Chardonnay or Burgundy, try Olivier Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet 2009

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Submitted by Patti Peek Neumann on Tue, 11/19/2013 - 1:39pm

Chardonnay is the world’s most famous white wine grape and is behind the finest white Burgundies. It is also one of the most widely planted varieties, although it is generally acknowledged that the best expressions of the grape are found in France, the USA and Australia. Recently, I was gifted a very special Chardonnay, ugh, French Burgundy, wine by @Wines By Raz called Olivier Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet 2009. I researched AFTER tasting and found my palate collected a lot of notes previously recorded of ripe fruit, apples, honey and touches of oak and smokiness.

Raz explained to me that Chassagne Montrachet and Puligny Montrachet are the heart of Burgundy's white wine region with the two most famous of Grand Crus -Batard-Montrachet and Le Montrachet- split almost evenly between the two communes. The wines produced here represent the pinnacle in quality French Chardonnay.

Terroir: Chassagne's vineyards begin with the Grand Crus in the north and work their way south/southeast along the hillside. The Olivier Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet AC is produced using the "cuvée ronde" method blending multiple plots from throughout the appellation to produce a final blend of rich complexity. A sizable portion of the final blend is declassified 1er Cru fruit.

Vinification: The juice from each plot is vinified and aged separately. Primary fermentatio, malolactic fermentation and aging takes place in 100% Allier oak, about 20% of which is new. The wines are aged in the cellars for a minimum of twelve months prior to racking and blending followed by another 15-18 months in bottle before release.

Olivier Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet is a rich, powerful and age worthy Chardonnay true to the characteristics of this famous appellation.

Some details: Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru wines are those made under the Puligny-Montrachet appellation, from grapes grown in officially recognized Premier Cru vineyards. The Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru title covers white wines made from Chardonnay and red wines made from Pinot Noir, although reds make up only a tiny fraction of the village's output. It is Puligny's high-quality Grand Cru and Premier Cru white wines – regarded by many as the finest possible expression of Chardonnay – that are responsible for the appellation's fame and stellar reputation.

Puligny-Montrachet itself is a small village in the Cote de Beaune sub-region of Burgundy. Its 17 named Premier Cru sites are permitted to include the words Premier Cru on their labels, along with their specific vineyard names. These sites were identified and demarcated in 1984; a few with particularly prized terroir (such as Le Cailleret and Les Pucelles) have reputations almost as impeccable as their Grand Cru neighbors.

Source Help: www.Wine-Searcher.com

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