2017 Olivier Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru, Les Pucelles

Opening in the glass with notes of crisp yellow orchard fruit, Anjou pear, peach, honeycomb and buttered toast, the 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles (Récolte du Domaine) is medium to full-bodied, satiny and enveloping, with an impressively racy spine of acidity, excellent concentration and a long, penetrating finish. Combining the amplitude of which this climat is capable with cut and tension that's impressive in an inherently sunny vintage, this is a terrific effort from Olivier Leflaive, derived from holdings that were formerly farmed and vinified by Domaine Leflaive.

The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1er Cru has a strict, linear bouquet, certainly reductive in style and yet very focused and delineated. The palate does show quite a bit of oak, a little charred perhaps, but there is plenty of fruit behind it and the wood will be absorbed with time. Lots of energy on the very persistent finish and a little smoke on the aftertaste. A Pucelles determined to make an impression, but it needs to keep its reductive tendencies in check. Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting in Savigny-lès-Beaune.

Rich and broad and mineral and layered, very dramatic and attention-grabbing. Broad and full. So long! GV (JR)