Chevalier Montrachet, Domaine Leflaive 2023

The 2023 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru has a tightly wound bouquet despite my giving it five to ten minutes to open up. With hints of sunflower seed and crushed limestone, this is a real clenched fist aromatically. The palate is very well balanced with intense yellow and white fruit, less minerally than the Bâtard perhaps with just a hint of wild honey on the finish. It is a lovely wine…but could this be a year where Bâtard takes the glory? (Drink between 2027-2058)

This is aromatically quite cool still with its restrained nose of Granny Smith apple, plethora of white flower, spice, iodine, quinine and mineral reduction aromas. There is again excellent underlying tension to the racy, detailed and stony medium weight plus flavors that are akin to rolling tiny pebbles around the mouth on the youthfully austere, sneaky long and balanced finale. This chiseled and moderately austere effort is also very clearly built to repay extended keeping and it has every appearance of being one of the better recent vintages of the Leflaive Chevalier. (Drink starting 2035)