2017 Puligny Montrachet Les Chalumeaux
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The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet Les Chalumeaux 1er Cru comes from a great site and has tremendous class and purity as well as length. Still young and backward, but with loads of promise in its white flowers, crushed citrus, oyster shell, and salty, mineral-laced aromas and flavors. Incredibly pure, medium-bodied, and elegant on the palate, with, again, this terrific sense of class and elegance, it needs 3-4 years of bottle age to show its true potential and should shine over the following decade or more.
Critic scores
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Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Chalumaux is a promising bottle in the making, unfurling in the glass with a youthfully reserved bouquet of mandarin oil, crisp peach and green orchard fruit. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, with a more delicate and less fleshy profile than the Meursault Charmes, concluding with a pure and chalky finish. It's a lovely rendition of Les Chalumaux.
(from vines harvested on September 1, before they had a chance to absorb much water, according to Elsa Matrot): Pale yellow-green. Distinctly more minerally on the nose than the Meursault Charmes, with notes of fresh peach and apple complicated by menthol, licorice and chalk. Nicely concentrated and light on its feet, with well-integrated mineral-driven acidity and complicating herbal and floral nuances contributing to the impression of energy. Finishes vibrant and persistent, with a positive dryness. (Elsa Matrot told me that the estate's Charmes and Blagny cuvées have a tendency to keep more sugar at the end of their fermentations, adding that "we must be vigilant.")