Montagnon's superb Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres reveals liquid minerals, stones, and chalk on the nose as well as a smoky, toasty, flinty, leesy, buttery, and citrusy core of ripe fruit. This well-crafted, medium-to-full-bodied, delineated, and silky wine possesses first rate concentration, depth, extraction, and a delightfully long and pear-infused finish. Projected maturity: 2002 to 2006.
The rating, with the range of scores in parentheses, indicates the wine was tasted from cask, not bottle.
Jacques Montagnon, the Chateau de Puligny-Montrachet's young, dedicated, bright, and dynamic winemaker is leading this estate into the top echelon of Puligny's domaines. The Chateau's yields averaged 40 hectoliters/hectare while many of Montagnon's more esteemed, and more expensive, neighbors harvested 40% more. Not one to mince words, Montagnon described the 30% increase in permissible yields Puligny's vignerons obtained from the INAO to be a "total aberration and heresy."
Robert Kacher, this estate's US importer, is given the permission to select the barrels he would like, as are other nations' importers. In 1996 Kacher's "cuvees" have been subjected to a longer elevage than England's and the rest of Europe's. These notes reflect the wines that will be shipped to the US.
Montagnon's 1996's have the ripe, rich, and lively qualities I associate with this outstanding vintage, yet seem to have avoided its potential pitfalls, namely hollowness from high yields and teeth-clenching acidity.
Importer: Robert Kacher Selections, Washington, DC; tel (202) 832-9083.
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