Leflaive Bienvenues Batard Montrachet Grand Cru 1996 750ml

Burghound.com/Tasted: Jul 25, 2008
I have had more than a little bottle variation with one example that was so heavily reduced with so much sulfur on the nose that it never did entirely blow off, even after several hours. By contrast, the most recent bottle was outstanding with a beautiful honeysuckle and elegant white fruit nose of really fine complexity that introduces medium weight, finely detailed, racy and pure flavors of real distinction and grace, not to mention truly impressive length. While this will clearly age for years to come, for my taste the initial hints of maturity are present and thus I would be drinking the '96 BBM over the next 10 to 15 years in this format.

Domaine Leflaive is the most famous estate in Puligny-Montrachet. Anne-Claude Leflaive became co-gérant of this famous Puligny domaine in 1990 - she move towards an organic approach to her vineyards.
After seven years of experiments, with one third of the domaine biodynamic and two thirds organic, the whole domaine was converted to biodynamic farming in 1997, following in the footsteps of Lalou Bize-Leroy and Nicolas Joly.
Leflaives have been extant in Puligny since 1717 but the real founder of the domaine was Joseph (1870-1953) who was succeeded by two of his sons, Vincent and Jo. Responsibility in today’s generation was at first shared by cousins Olivier and Anne-Claude Leflaive, with the latter taking sole responsibility from 1994. The domaine will lose Olivier’s share of the vineyards from 2009.
Leflaive has 22 hectares of vineyards, including 10 hectares of Premiers Crus (in Puligny Montrachet: Les Combettes, Les Pucelles, Les Clavoillons, Les Folatieres/Les Chalumeaux and in Blagny: Sous le Dos d'Ane) and no fewer than 5 hectares of Grands Crus (Chevalier Montrachet, Batard Montrachet, Bienvenues Batard Montrachet).

Meats, Chicken and Turkey