7/2/2019 - drjb wrote:

Predictedly premoxed !

7/1/2019 - Burgundy Al wrote:

Domaine Leflaive Cellar Visit and Tasting (Puligny-Montrachet): Tasting at the Domaine. Richer start vs Combettes and slightly more floral, even if less bright and precise. Dense and chewy start with more a finessed and minerally finish. 93-94 point potential.

5/31/2019 - Alex G. Likes this wine:

Served blind. Great sap and viscosity, truly noteworthy rich mouthfeel. Aroma and palate relatively subdued, served too cold.

6/24/2019 - dchain Likes this wine:

2nd bottle from a 90 bottle lot! This one had a French tax label on the top of the capsule. A bit fresher than the bottle a few weeks ago. Liquid popcorn, golden apple and a lovely fresh uplift to it. Very close to grand cru quality and delicious drinking.

6/11/2019 - dcwino wrote:

Five winos excellent adventure , mostly in Burgundy; 6/7/2019-6/15/2019 (Beaune, France): Expressive nose displaying ripe white fruit, pear, banana, pineapple, lemon oil, sweet spices, light honey and limestone. Exceptional concentration, i.e. most concentrated 1er crus, dense sweet yellow fruit, rich and dense without being heavy, bright acidity, strong mineral and a long sweet yellow fruit driven finish. Really impressive but I slightly prefer the purity and exceptional detail of the Combettes.

6/15/2019 - Jammy Wine Likes this wine:

Wines from Domaine Leflaive before 2004 vintage are stunning and are rarely premoxed. This bottle of 1998 Pucelles is even fresher than the last one I had a couple months ago. Layers of golden orchard fruits, smoked nutmeg and spices, waxy layers of lemon. Mild sour citrus fruit and waxy honey on the finish. Complex and intriguing, it has got the Leflaive magic and Pucelles is knocking on Grand Cru doors. (92/100)

6/6/2019 - dchain Likes this wine:

VC went mad and bought a 90 bottle lot of this because it was cheap so I thought we better try it out given the massive failure of Leflaive to manage its premox issues from 95 onwards. Slightly concerned on first pour given the light golden hue from the wine but on the nose is surprisingly fresh with golden apple, beeswax (but thankfully not too dominant) and some nice minerality also showing through. Very complex on the palate with a hint of Chevalier notes this was really enjoyed by all except MaMa who complained it was “too buttery”. I didn’t agree with that description but it certainly had that butter popcorn/kernel note that might be a bit too much for those who prefer the Roulot style of minimalist wine making. Almost old fashioned in a sense but like the classics there is a greatness to them. Not sure we need 89 of these so will sell at least half but buy and enjoy this for a good example of what white burgundy can deliver! Drink with confidence for the next 2-3 years at least.

5/25/2019 - vinhonotte Likes this wine:

Fine Wines SG - White Burgundy Grand Cru Tasting (Fine Wines SG): A very sure sweetness on the nose, with melon, sugarcane, grass, nutmeg, and bread. Acidic and warm, with lemons, apricot, and a bit of honeycomb. Fairly long

5/25/2019 - Collector1855 wrote:

Puligny-Montrachet les Pucelles - blind tasting 1998-2011: Very closed and needs coaxing, underneath is a lot of oyster shell, oats, citrus. Light on the palate, precise. I wished for a bit more volume but the overall balance and precision are impressive and with Leflaive, lucky that it is not premoxed. 93-95

5/15/2019 - The Vines That Bind wrote:

Showing slight oxidization through the extreme ripeness. Shouldn’t be surprising but still kind of hard to accept. A real roasted marshmallow characteristic, kind of smouldering synthetic frosting. Extremely ripe and exotic, tropical yellow fruit. I actually think it’s pretty good for the vintage and don’t mind drinking this at all, but MP, a deep Coche collector and white burgundy expert, was quick to point out that this was incorrect. One somm said good, another said less than good. Opened a 2010 Combottes which put an end to the discussion pretty quickly as it was extremely sharp and fresh. Will try another one shortly, but I’m still ~92 on this.

5/17/2019 - acyso wrote:

HDH Burgundy Auction; 5/17/2019-5/18/2019 (Chicago, IL): No prizes for guessing the flaw.

5/6/2019 - Burgnick Likes this wine:

In a flight of 93 Leflaive Montrachet, Chevalier Montrachet and Pucelles, this bottle really outperformed its pedigree. The most youthful wine among the three probably because of provenance. Grilled nut, flint and citrus on the nose. Palate was intiially leaner compared to the other two big boys. But it gained considerable weight and volume in the glass, releasing that old leflaive honeysucle and nut fruit. The length was certainly shorter compared with the two grand cru, but it reallg stood out within its own class. A really superb pucelles. A great entry point to taste a great old leflaive at a relatively affordable price. 93+++

5/3/2019 - maaike2 wrote:

Elegant, good acids, well balanced, but lacking intensity and power. Disappointing, but still a beautiful wine, too expensive. Let us see what the 5 bottles will bring.

4/26/2019 - dcwino wrote:

1996 Burgundy Retrospective - The First Session (Clarity - Vienna, Virginia): Perfectly mature energetic nose displaying ripe yet precise yellow citrus fruit, light caramel, a hint of matchstick, sesame, spice spices and limestone mineral. Beautifully integrated palate, finely layered concentrated sweet yellow fruit, exceptional precision and focus, bright acidity, strong mineral and a long sweet yellow fruit driven finish with matchstick and sesame at the end. Almost identical expression as the bottle from 2016.

4/11/2019 - Ramon1947 wrote:

Still drinking well. Pours a beautiful golden color. Nose of caramel, mineral, some orange rind.
Tasting honey, some baked apple, wet rocks. Nice acidity.

4/6/2019 - hprphf wrote:

Acker April Auction 2019 (sad day) (Marea): Firm and tight, but not giving much. 90

3/31/2019 - Jammy Wine Likes this wine:

This 1998 Leflaive Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles is incredibly fresh and vibrant, a textbook showcase of Leflaive in the golden era. Pucelles is knocking on Grand Cru doors, offering a complex array of flavours - Reductive struck-match / gasoline and burnt popcorn with a layer of ripe orchard fruits. Good complexity and energy. Everyone thought it was showing much younger it is. Textured lees, expansive on the palate, Pucelles sappy-waxy finish. (92/100)

3/28/2019 - beatles wrote:

When Leflaive works, it works, this really took us by surprise. Colour is mature, golden, lots of matchstick on the nose, the taste is deep and layered with flinty minerals, citrus & butter. Great wine - probably peaking.
#FormelB

3/29/2019 - Mrbuzz Likes this wine:

MAN did I get a great batch on these 2000's! This is the 5th bottle I've had, and all have been outstanding! Rich and buttery, showing GC weight, yet still bursting with citrus cut and saline crushed geology. Little more oak spice showing than the last bottle 2yrs ago, but well integrated with the ripe orchard fruits...very fresh tasting with match strike reduction embalming, lemon wax shine...aged nuances of dried honey, white truffle, wet limestone chalk. Wonderful fullness and length...becomes a symphony of pleasure after a a few sips. This is why we do it! Great wine!

3/9/2019 - Burgundy Al wrote:

La Paulée de New York Grand Tasting (Pier Sixty - New York NY): Tasting, brief note. Rich stone fruit with ripe apple and complex spice and textures, making this already charming as well as complex. Seemed to show Grand Cru density to me. Very impressive wine, very cellar worthy.

3/9/2019 - JOsgood wrote:

La Paulée 2019 Grand Tasting of 2016 Burgundy (Pier Sixty, New York): Fantastic white Burgundy. So much depth and complexity on the finish.

3/9/2019 - Burgundy Al wrote:

La Paulée de New York Gala Dinner (Pier Sixty - New York NY): Small glass, brief note. Cross-section of apple flavors and aromas with background peach. Very powerful and concentrated, even if not amazingly complex. If served blind, I'd have thought Grand Cru based on density. Very good now.

3/10/2019 - ptwu Does not like this wine:

Yet another Leflaive Pucelles victimized by premox. Ridiculous. Wasn’t totally gone but not a pleasurable experience. Had an 07 Girardin Corton Charlemagne which was pristine.

3/9/2019 - drwine2001 wrote:

La Paulée 2019 Grand Tasting of 2016 Burgundy (Pier 60, New York): More high toned nose with orange zest. Better acidity although not high. Less wood than the Clavoillons. Amazing glycerine, great feel in the mouth, lemon fruit, excellent length. Much more classic Puligny. I liked the Clavoillons, but I loved this.

3/9/2019 - the godfather wrote:

pure and delicous

2/18/2019 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

La Nuit des Garcons (Grill Restaurant, Hong Kong Country Club, Hong Kong): Second of my case opened with friends as part of a '3 blind whites' start to our dinner. Light honey gold colour. Typical Leflaive nose of initial slightly burnt rubber and new bicycle inner tubes with the french chalk....charred lemon skins but still very young and is all high piano notes (no sign whatsoever of premox here). Palate is immediately rich, almost like sweet potato, slightly sweet other tones, very rounded pebbles in a stream....then mounting power and resonance with a growing combination of white nougat and light honey. So powerful on the finish but so little weight. Will definitely improve but already a solid 93+. This is what great white Burgundy is all about.

2/24/2019 - The Vines That Bind wrote:

Nose is fresh and clean, mild Leflaive sulphur but not particularly reductive, more white floral, also nice spice, great vanilla bean. An intriguing buttery white asparagus. Gold yellow fruit is open and super ripe but is still crisp, fresh, and tight. Very impressed. Palate has remarkable acid for the vintage and cuts the rich fruit with great stoney minerality. Tropical, fibrous pineapple. Maybe I’ve just been starved for good White Burgundy lately or that I haven’t been impressed with a Leflaive 1er in a while, but I kind of can’t believe how good this is. Long finish with plenty of staying power. 93-94.

2/18/2019 - JVC_BE Likes this wine:

From Magnum: very good this time

2/3/2019 - rlove wrote:

Still showing some flinty reduction, but the main theme here is rich orchard fruit, alongside honey and spice. There's nice depth to the honeyed orchard fruit on the palate, although the 1999 Pucelles shows more weight than I prefer, thanks in part to Botrytis. In a sweet spot today and, given the mostly resolved structure, I'd drink this in the near term. (My sixth and last bottle. Three shower similar to this, one advanced but drinkable, two oxidized.)

1/30/2019 - robferguson1 wrote:

This was too yellow, urine like so bottle variation, had long finish but definitely over advanced, probably would have been more like the 93 critics gave it.

1/30/2019 - Andre Brattland wrote:

Wonderfully rich and complex aromas with citrus fruit, buttery feeling and light smoke. Pretty full-bodied wine with a delicious fruit feeling of citrus, apple peel, and with delicious spice. Linear and not too fat. Nicely acidic cut and great balance. Lovely mineral finish. Great wine with definitive Grand Cru stuffing. 94 points.

1/26/2019 - Jeremy Holmes wrote:

Richness with tension. Loaded with powerful stone fruit flavours. There’s great drive and near perfect balance. The finish is strewn with geological matter.

1/19/2019 - NJwineguy wrote:

Lots of reduction

1/19/2019 - fclarity wrote:

From an excellent looking bottle, the medium+ instensity nose offered up dried mango, candied lemon, and white stone.

In the mouth, this wine was rich and ripe but had a very firm backbone that more than held it all together. Despite this wines substantial presence, it had fantastic balance and length.

To my mind this is Grand Cru quality all the way. It will easily last a decade but can you resist?

1/17/2019 - dream Likes this wine:

This bottling was fully mature but not premoxed. It's lost some of it's intensity and acidity but still has good richness of mature fruits and a lovely round, slightly oily texture. The finish is elegant with good complexity and notes of caramel, lemon rind and spices.

1/17/2019 - thomasito2001 Likes this wine:

Not much evolution compared to last bottle, and no signs of oxydation. Very primary, crisp and well-delineated nose. Palate is medium-bodied, very energetic with clean and pure acidic backbone. Matter is there but not in the foreground. Really at a great place right now.

1/16/2019 - fcxj wrote:

Zachys. Quite floral, open. High acid, not typical roundness.

1/10/2019 - fcxj wrote:

Enjoyable.

1/10/2019 - jlgnml Likes this wine:

Outstanding color and condition. Got better in the glass. Began to thicken over time, great muted fruit, crisp, lasting on the palate. Exactly what a great white burgundy should taste like. Elegant!

1/8/2019 - fcxj wrote:

Masterclass. Really, really sweet. On edge of overbearingly so, probably bit over.

1/8/2019 - fcxj wrote:

Masterclass. Not poxed! Floral, clean and refined.

12/7/2018 - hajoha wrote:

Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 2002 magnum.
Her krysser alle mann fingrene før korken går av.
Vi sitter og nistirrer i det flasken helles i glasset - oxspøkelse eller engler og fyrverkeri?
Pen farge, første sniff - parfyme, blomster og sitrus umiddelbart.
Jadda!
Denne lever i beste velgående og er til og med på den ungdommelige siden.
Med luft kommer krydder og knust stein som et nydelig tilskudd til den flotte frukten.
Særdeles vakker nese med stor intensitet.
Fløyelsmyk munnfølelse med pen fylde.
Konsentrasjonen slår inn med stor kraft og presisjon.
Fruktkvalitet på ypperste nivå.
Elegant og ren som få.
Alle elementer lever i symbiose - perfekt balansert.
Sterk kurve som aldri avviker og ender i en stram og imponerende lang finish.
Den sitter og sitter ein evighet med et vogntog med mineralitet i ettersmaken.
En fantastisk flaske som vil utvikle seg i mange år fremover. 95-96p

12/31/2018 - Goldstone Likes this wine:

New Year's Eve Dinner (The Library, Crown Wine Cellars, Hong Kong): Decanted for an hour. Very light hay gold colour...almost silvery still. Nose is very muted when at cellar temperature and only gradually unwound to express the lemon and oyster shell end of the white Burgundy spectrum. The palate is very crisp, high piano notes, so young....an almost cucumber freshness. Quite resonant inside the head as it warms up and the piano notes drop an octave as it gets headier. Surprised how youthful it is...so razor blade sharp. I wrote "Scintillating!!"...which summed it up. My first of a case. 93+

12/25/2018 - faivre_eric Likes this wine:

Fabulous wine!
Not a powerhouse but beautiful aromas of flowers and grapefruit.
On the palate, buttery, round and nicely oaky!
Long finish and making you want more!
Medium to long finish.

12/26/2018 - Paul S wrote:

Lunch at Summer Pavilion (Summer Pavilion, Ritz Carlton, Singapore): Lovely stuff, if a bit on the riper side. The nose was a lovely marriage of the riper, stone fruit and flower 2009 tones with typical Leflaive aromas of flint, chalk and smoky mineral notes. The palate was still very young and primary, with a solid chew of rich stone fruited notes, and an almost structural spine of stony minerality underneath. Lovely depth and grip to it, and a surprising amount of focus for a weigty vintage. It lacked the sheer laser-like cut and definition of vintages like 1996, 2002 and 2004, but it was very good for what it is. Yummy, and it should get better in the next few years.

12/21/2018 - Ben Christiansen wrote:

Apple cider for sure.

12/14/2018 - acyso wrote:

HDH December auction; 12/13/2018-12/15/2018 (Chicago, IL): Awesome stuff. It's wines like this that remind me of how awesome Leflaive can be. Lots of reduction on the nose, but the palate is broad and rich, and there's great intensity here. It's a nicely mature chardonnay, but there's this broad power here that I just absolutely adore.

12/14/2018 - Burgundy Al wrote:

Wines Tasted at HDH Auction; 12/13/2018-12/15/2018 (Spiaggia - Chicago IL): Wow, another great Leflaive 1999. So much more of everything vs 2000, with great concentration and length. Both orchard and stone fruit with slightly sweet spice.

12/14/2018 - Burgundy Al wrote:

Wines Tasted at HDH Auction; 12/13/2018-12/15/2018 (Spiaggia - Chicago IL): Rich orchard fruit, some peach, faint spice. Fresh for its age, good weight and length, better balance.

6/15/2018 - Paul S wrote:

Bruno Giacosa Tribute Dinner (Casa Tartufo, Singapore): Always lovely, this seems to just seems to grow and grow with time. Today, the nose exploded out of the glass with deep wafts of flinty mineral, smoky spice, and toasted almond nuts - all swirling around a core of creamy white fruit. The palate was still tingling with nervous energy, with bright 1996 acidity and a real spine of flinty, slakey minerality piercing through a rich core of ripe yellow fruit, and then just a touch of creamy butter on the sides, all tailing away into a long, bittersweet, almond-skin finish. A stunning wine, fleshy and delicious, yet packed with power and wonderfully structured, with a real sinewy feel to it. Superb, and still opening up.