Olivier Leflaive : Montrachet Grand cru 2020

Characteristics and tasting tips for the Montrachet Grand Cru 2020 by Olivier Leflaive

Tasting

Appearance
Clear and luminous, the colour reveals a hue ranging from pale gold to deep gold, adorned with subtle green highlights in its youth.

Nose
Remarkably subtle, the nose unveils a complex bouquet blending aromas of white flowers, ripe apple and ripe pear. The whole is enhanced by delicate spicy touches and a profound minerality.

Palate
Intense and velvety, the palate captivates with its full, perfectly polished texture. Remarkably precise, it offers a harmonious balance between richness and tension, stretching into a finish of great persistence.

Food and wine pairings

This great white wine pairs wonderfully with noble fish such as turbot or line-caught sea bass, served with a beurre blanc sauce. It also elevates delicate shellfish such as lobster, high-quality poultry, or cooked pressed cheeses such as an aged Comté.

Serving and cellaring

For optimal enjoyment, we recommend serving this wine at a temperature between 12 and 14 °C. It can be enjoyed from 2025 and will evolve favourably until around 2030.

Olivier Leflaive: an essential estate in Burgundy

The estate

Founded in 1984 in the heart of Puligny-Montrachet, Maison Olivier Leflaive is an essential reference in Burgundy. Descended from a long line of winegrowers, this hybrid structure combines an estate-owned domaine with a haute couture micro-négoce activity. Now led by Jean Soubeyrand, its managing director, the estate cultivates 26 hectares of vines with a rigorous parcel-by-parcel approach. Committed to environmental respect and a pioneer of wine tourism, the house strives to express the purity and authenticity of each terroir through cuvées of remarkable precision.

The vineyard

This grand cru comes from a tiny terroir of eight hectares in total, of which the house's parcels lie on the Puligny side. The Montrachet climat sits mid-slope on a brown limestone soil offering rapid drainage. Enriched by the famous Pholadomiya Bellona marl, this exceptional terroir is farmed using reasoned pest control, ensuring grapes of optimal quality, all harvested entirely by hand.

The vintage

The 2020 vintage stands out for its historic earliness, beginning with budburst three weeks ahead of schedule. The season continued with a particularly hot, dry summer, resulting in a marked water deficit. Despite this summer drought, the absence of rainfall kept the vines in impeccable health, leading to a harvest carried out entirely in August.

Winemaking and ageing

As soon as they arrive at the winery, the whole bunches are gently pressed using pneumatic presses. The juices are then run directly into barrel to begin fermentation. Ageing takes place exclusively in French oak barrels, around 33% of which are new, for a total of twenty months. This period includes approximately seven months of blending as a single batch before bottling.

Grape variety

100% Chardonnay