2005 Domaine Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru

This is a great vintage from Domaine Leflaive, which owns 4.92 acres in Chevalier, including a significant portion of vines dating to the 1950s. This 2005 is marked by the concentration of a smaller-than-average harvest (cool weather during flowering caused poor or uneven fruit set). The season was dry, the grapes harvested on the 20th and 21st of September, fruit days on the biodynamic calendar, following several days of north winds and sunshine that peaked the fruit ripeness. The beneficent conditions and the care with which estate manager Pierre Morey and Anne-Claude Leflaive farm their vines resulted in this brilliant Chevalier. It shows an aristocratic finesse from the moment the bottle is opened. The wine's power and dynamic intensity make it hard to resist, as if it went beyond perfect balance and form to sustain the energy of the fruit in the glass. The taste is little more than a caress that lasts for minutes, bringing idealized images of Burgundy to mind: the sun on a hillside of yellow herbs growing between the vines, the roots working their way through minerals in the soil, a cool limestone cellar where wine rests in oak. The elegance that comes from Chevalier's high point on the hill separates it from Domaine Leflaive's more broad-shouldered Bâtard, the distinction amplified in this vintage. Both are wines to enjoy for decades to come.