1992 | Domaine Leflaive | Chevalier-Montrachet

Description

White Wine: 1992 | Domaine Leflaive | Chevalier-Montrachet

A clearly outstanding wine that’s chock full of flavor and liberally spiced with toasty oak. This is a full-bodied, white Burgundy. The lingering, expanding aftertaste is a hallmark of quality.

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Producer: Domaine Leflaive

Ratings: WA | 97 V | 95

Vintage: 1992

Size: 750ml

ABV: 13%

Varietal: Chardonnay

Country/Region: France, Cote de Beaune

A clearly outstanding wine that’s chock full of flavor and liberally spiced with toasty oak. This is a full-bodied, white Burgundy. The lingering, expanding aftertaste is a hallmark of quality.

Reviews:

• Wine Advocate: Another of this tasting’s highlights was the 1992 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru, an exotically aromatic vintage of this great wine that bursts from the glass with scents of fresh peaches, vine and citrus blossom, pear, mandarin oil and frangipane. It’s full-bodied, broad and satiny, with an ample and envelopingly textural profile that displays considerable mid-palate volume, impressive depth and concentration and a long, precise finish. Produced from fully ripe, golden-hued grapes, the 1992’s aromas could easily give the impression that the wine saw a little botrytis, yet I’m assured that this wasn’t the case. By the numbers, it attained a pH of 3.08 and 14% alcoholmaking it both lower in alcohol and lower in pH than both the 1990 and 1989yet given this Chevalier’s exotic character and extravagantly expressive style, the inverse could easily be imagined.

• Vinous: Full copper-yellow color. Exotic, musky aromas of ripe apricot, brown spices, hazelnut and frangipane; not a particularly mineral style. Thick verging on heavy on entry but pulled back from the brink by terrific spicy acidity. This wine is fully mature but should go on for another decade owing to its remarkable solidity and piquant notes of crystallized lemon peel and orange zest. Really serious opulence and palate presence here, that much more impressive considering that the yield was a healthy 40 to 45 hectoliters per hectare. Finishes with incredible, slowly building length and an intriguing balsamic note; it’s hard to scrape this powerfully structured wine off the palate.

Producer Information

Domaine Leflaive, based in Puligny-Montrachet, is one of the most important producers in the Cte de Beaune. Focusing almost entirely on white wines made from Chardonnay, the Domaine makes four grand cru wines and four premier crus in Puligny-Montrachet. The Domaine was founded by Joseph Leflaive, a former engineer. In 1905, he purchased vineyards in Puligny-Montrachet which had been ravaged by phylloxera, and set about replanting and expanding them. Upon his death in 1953, his sons Vincent and Jo took over the running of the estate, and are widely credited with building up the reputation that Leflaive enjoys today. In 1990, cousins Anne Claude and Olivier Leflaive took over the running of the estate, with Olivier leaving in 1994 to run his own negociant business. Anne Claude converted the vineyards to biodynamics and is considered a pioneer of that movement in Burgundy. After her death in 2015, her nephew Brice de la Morandiere has taken over the running of Domaine Leflaive. Domaine Leflaive’s most important wine is arguably the Montrachet Grand Cru, which, depending on vintage, can fetch upwards of $5000 a bottle. The domaine also has land in Chevalier-Montrachet, Batard-Montrachet, and Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet, and makes a grand cru wine from each. Additional to this, there are several premier cru wines, the most important of which is probably the Les Clavoillon, which was one of the wines included in the 1976 Judgment of Paris. Domaine Leflaive also makes a sole red wine from Pinot Noir under the Blagny Sous le Dos d’Ane Premier Cru title.