March 1, 2024 - La Paulée de Los Angeles - The Verticals (Maybourne Hotel - Beverly Hills CA): Vertical. I expect there were some better bottles of this wine opened tonight, but this bottle was lackluster and tired, at best.
March 1, 2024 - Wines Tasted at the La Paulée Verticals Session (The Maybourne, Beverly Hills): Healthy yellow color. Nothing but wood on the nose. Sweet, exotic, rich entry, excellent soil, good acidity. Then, a harsh, bitter, woody finish. None of the Leflaive Pulignys were completely right, and they all seemed clumsy and mixed up.
June 24, 2022 - Musique & Vin Festival BYO Dinner (Château de Meursault): Small glass. Clearly reduced, so impossible to assess in the time allowed at this fast-paced dinner. But certainly enough fresh fruit still here, in a vintage where many wines lost all freshness years ago.
November 13, 2019 - Clos St Jacques Dinner (Gunther's, Purivs Street, Singapore): A really, really nice 2005 white Chez Leflaive. The nose was classic Leflaive, with ripe yellow fruit touched with whiffs of smoky flint, mineral and matchsticks. It was rich, ripe and sweet on the palate as one would expect from a 2005, but still very nicely balanced and defined, with sweet yellow fruited tones underlined with a beautiful bit of flint and chalky mineral, decent acidity, and then some nice spice notes stretching into superbly long, full, satisfying finish. A voluptuous wine - tons of luscious buttery depth and Grand Cru-like power - yet still beautifully controlled. Bravo. Absolutely delicious stuff, drinking nicely now, but this should age effortlessly as well.
October 16, 2019 - The winner in a horizontal of the 2005 Leflaive premier crus. Opens quickly with a rich, toasty, reductive nose. Lots of fruit but also an intriguing touch of mushroom. Palate is lusciously fruity but very well balanced, with mineral and some Champagne-like brioche notes. Bigger than the Folatieres but also more refined and complete. Not quite as spicy as the Pucelles. Quite a long finish. So much concentration without a hint of heaviness.
June 25, 2019 - Severely premoxed ! Note previous bottle - bury the rag deep in your face, now is the time for your tears ! Apologies to Bob Dylan.
March 4, 2019 - Classic Leflaive nose of reductive sulphur and struck match, this one is particularly smoky, which I love. Sharp yellow fruit. Wonderfully fresh. Such a relief, and rewarding, when these bottles are good. Palate is good upfront but is rather thin midway through and has a soft finish. The scents and flavours are all of the exact variety I love about Leflaive, just slightly dialled back on this iteration. A little blue bubble gum in the finish. Coming full circle and very good. Decidedly superior to Clavaillon.
October 13, 2018 - @restaurant eik, Oslo
Light golden colour. Nose of lime, lemonpeel and lemontart. Smoky minerality, like freshly crushed flint. Some butter but discreet, just adding to the complexity. Yellow and green apples, some stonefruit and white flowers. On the palate still fresh with just medium development. Good acidity, intense mineral feeling. Good, ripe fruit. Amazing balance! Long finish with fresh apples, lemonpeel and more smoke. Really beautiful wine!
December 3, 2017 - Pale gold; citrus, yellow and white fruit fragrances and hints of sweet blossoms, pleasing and balanced vanilla notes and a persistent spiciness; medium-to-full body, excellent structure, still-sappy; very long and silky, integrated finish. Not a show-off blockbuster but a great, full-flavored wine with excellent balance.
November 29, 2017 - The frustration of Leflaive in the 21st century ! Just when you give up on them along comes a lovely classic bottle of 1er Cru Puligny with lovely clarity and a fine nose of white peach, green apple, pear, honey and nuts. The palate is round and has some Meursault butter and honey rounded off with fine minerality and grip. A delicious bottle with none of the modern Leflaive signatures of premox, reduction and mercaptan.