Domaine Leflaive needs a little introduction to wine lovers. It has been described as Burgundy’s greatest white wine Domaine, and while this is a pretty strong claim, it is a justifiable one. The Leflaive family has been in Burgundy since 1717 and began to take shape as a Domaine in the early 1900s under the leadership of Claude Leflaive. The Domaine gained its prominence in the hands of Anne-Claude Leflaive, who converted the vineyards to biodynamics in the 1990s giving the wines greater transparency in their expression of terroir.
Les Pucelles is one of Puligny-Montrachet's top Premier Cru vineyards, located at the very southern end of the Cote de Beaune. It lies on the hillside above the village itself and is planted entirely to Chardonnay, much like its Grand Cru neighbours. Les Pucelles Premier Cru wines are more elegant than most, with aromatic complexity and an almost sweet, nutty palate.
Leflaive has 3 parcels in the "Les Pucelles" appellation on Clay-limestone. "le Clos du meix": (2.77 acres) planted in 1981 and 1985. "the great": (3.88 acres) planted in 1954, 1957, 1958, 1961 and 1963. "the small": (0.91-acre) planted in 1969. They do manual harvesting with grape sorting and optimisation of choice of date through parcel-by-parcel ripeness monitoring.
Here too the nose is cool and restrained with a discreet application of wood framing the beautifully layered aromas of honeysuckle, white peach, citrus confit, spice and a variety of floral nuances and in particular, acacia blossom. The refined and strikingly textured medium weight flavors possess excellent mid-palate concentration before terminating in a highly persistent, impeccably well-balanced and markedly dry, but not really austere, finale. This beauty is quite understated with the requisite balance and underlying material to reward long-term keeping. In short, this is potentially brilliant.