2018 Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru, Les Combettes

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru has as well-defined and mineral-driven bouquet, discrete but nicely focused. The palate is well balanced with a saline, lime and citrus entry, fine weight. Maybe not as complex as its peers yet full of energy. Pure class. Tasted blind at the Burgfest 2018 white tasting.

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes possesses an additional level of concentration this year, and it marks a transition in the portfolio between the charming, giving lower appellations and the rather more serious top premiers and grands crus. Unfurling in the glass with notes of crisp yellow orchard fruit, orange oil, Meyer lemon, almond paste and citrus blossom, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and nicely concentrated, with fine mid-palate amplitude, lively acids and a saline finish.

Old vines that struggle, planted in 1963 and 1972. Lots of millerandage. They keep thinking of pulling them out but the quality of the small berries is too good, even if the yield is ‘awful’. Tank sample. Gently stony, dusty, smoky. Rich citrus clothed in creamy texture. Old-vine intensity, depth, power and freshness. Really long. (JH)