“The 2023 vintage follows an equally magnificent and tasty 2022 vintage.”
BRICE
DE LA MORANDIÈRE, NOVEMBER 2024
DOMAINE LEFLAIVE 2023
What do the 2023 season at Domaine Leflaive and the game of Scrabble have in common? Tactics, strategy and timing. This was a year in which you had to be at least one step ahead of the weather. Keep some of those one-pointer vowels in reserve for the tricky Qs and Zs. It makes the acclaimed 2022s look like simple noughts and crosses wines.
As has become customary, we tasted the new vintage at Domaine Leflaive amid the barrels, on a dark autumn evening. The day’s cellar work having come to an end, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Serried ranks of halfbottle samples were unveiled, raising the spirits of a weary but resurgent C&B tasting team.
Although we taste in studious silence, there can be a tangible aura of excitement on such occasions. A pursing of the lips, an exchange of raised eyebrows… Here, a shared crescendo of discovery carried us, almost magically, away from the seeping cold of the cellar and into the slopes beyond. The wooded enclave of Sous le Dos d’Âne, the venerable vines of Combettes, and the exposed, high-elevation limestone of Chevalier, expressed themselves with stunning clarity.
Adam Brett-Smith, Bryce Fraser, Joe Muller and I found this to be a set of wines rich in personality, unencumbered by any veneer or intervention. Flicking through my tasting notes, the word ‘white’ appears at least five times more often than ‘yellow’. A rather simplistic yardstick to back up my impression that ripeness levels have been managed beautifully, retaining crunch and verve whilst avoiding any excess from 2023’s late season burst of ripeness.
Adam’s notes, reproduced in this brochure, bear this out too. In descending order, his most frequent adjectives are (please bear with me…) ‘supple’, ‘rich’, ‘fresh’, ‘taut’, ‘nervy’, ‘creamy’, ‘golden’. Or in other words, ‘fresh, taut and nervy’ outweigh ‘creamy and golden’ by nearly 2:1.
Crucially, this crisp elegance runs through the range from top to bottom, grands crus to Mâconnais. The wines are not corseted or constrained though — I loved the flashes of exuberance in Clavoillon and Combettes, although the naturally flamboyant Folatières seemed more focused and driven than usual.
To complement the core wines from in and around Puligny-Montrachet, we once again have five wines from the Mâconnais and a sneak preview of two offerings from the Esprit Leflaive range, the rest of which will be released with a degree of bottle age.
Here is a blow-by-blow account of the 2023 season, with thanks to Brice de La Morandière…
Winter was once again mild, with little rain. Conditions in February and March were cooler and more stable. Spring awakened with a temperate April, without morning frosts. May was cool and rainy, which helped to replenish the water table. This weather continued until mid-June, with warmer days and cool nights: excellent conditions for vine and flower development.
A short heatwave at the beginning of July resulted in numerous thunderstorms throughout the month. Fortunately, there were no adverse consequences for the vines. Regular rainfall kept the soil cool and the roots moist. The heat returned at the beginning of August, with wide day-night temperature fluctuations, which aided vine development. Storms and regular rainfall returned in mid-August, amid much greater heat. 18th to 24th August saw a week of intense heat, with a peak of 37°C on the 24th, followed by rain the following day.
These conditions prompted rapid development in the vines. However, in the lead-in to harvest, widely disparate ripeness levels were observed, varying in accordance with crop load and vine age. Harvest started on 29th August with a reduced team, to give extra ripening time to parcels that needed to wait. From 2nd September, picking accelerated as another heatwave set in. As Brice said, “2023 is the first year that we stopped harvesting at 2pm at the domaine. It is to be expected that we will have to adopt this tempo in subsequent years.”
2023 was an early vintage in which heatwaves, the most significant of which coincided with harvest, made for sudden accelerations in ripening. It was all down to timing — a year in which the line between à point and bien cuit was particularly thin. Leflaive has played it to perfection, with pinpoint precision in the vines supported by the state-of-the-art new cuverie. This is a set of wines whose richness and longevity are backed up by tension, energy and zest.
GUY SEDDON HEAD OF FINE WINE BUYING DECEMBER 2024
VINEYARD HOLDINGS
MÂCONNAIS Hectares Years Planted
Mâcon-Verzé (Les Cassons, En Perret, Escolles, Les Muses)
Mâcon-Verzé Les Chênes
Mâcon-Verzé Le Monté
VILLAGE & REGIONAL WINES
Bourgogne Blanc (Les Parties, Les Houlières and La Plante des Champs)
PREMIER CRU VINEYARDS
Puligny-Montrachet
Puligny-Montrachet
GRAND CRU VINEYARDS
- 2010
2023 TASTING NOTES
By Adam Brett-Smith
DOMAINES LEFLAIVE
Domaines Leflaive (with an ‘s’) is the domaine’s operation in the Mâconnais. We have offered the Mâcon-Verzé since its inaugural 2004 vintage. In the 2017 vintage, two single vineyard cuvées were isolated, now joined by the Mâcon-Igé and Mâcon-Solutré-Pouilly.
MÂCON-VERZÉ
This was the wine that started it all back in 2004 when the domaine, then under Anne-Claude Leflaive, purchased this small 14.65-hectare plot that was subsequently to spawn the single vineyard wines below. We named it then, and still consider it now, one of the least expensive fine wines in the world, as well as being one of the most expensive Mâcons. Taut, reductive, “struck match” nose, sweetly rich, piercingly bright and zesty. The palate is juicy, with succulent fruit, a delectable freshness and subtle tension to the finish. Lovely wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17
Recommended drinking from 2025- 2029
£395/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£197.50/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£435/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
MÂCON-VERZÉ LES CHÊNES
This plot lies on heavier clay/limestone soil north/ northwest of Le Monté and is consequently “bigger” than the Verzé. Still clenched on the nose at first, swiftly followed by a surprisingly powerful, dense, sweetly ripe perfume, a seductive, generous, plump palate and a kick of acidity on the finish. Hedonists only.
Corney & Barrow Score 17
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2029
£465/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£495/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
MÂCON-VERZÉ LE MONTÉ
This is the rarest of the single plot wines (0.94 hectares) famed for its silex minerality. Delicately elegant nose, briny, almost salty — Puligny-like, even — with a palate that has wonderfully supple flavours, golden and white fruited and a tense, clean finish of impressive length. Cerebral.
Corney & Barrow Score 17 - 17.5
Recommended drinking from 2026 - 2030
£465/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£495/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
MÂCON-IGÉ
Just 0.82 hectares… and a personal favourite for its ability to extract sensuality from cool, stony ground. The nose is initially tight, then offers flashes of biscuity richness and sweetly ripe fruits. The palate is also rich but more subtly so with nicely deployed, generous flavours, good tension, and impressive length. “Sexy but intellectual,” I scribbled in the margin. Says it all really.
Corney & Barrow Score 18-
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2029
£405/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£445/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
MÂCON-SOLUTRÉ-POUILLY
Lying at the bottom of the valley, this is the most generous and inviting wine of the Mâcon stable, sharing as it does the same dense clay-rich soil as Pouilly-Fuissé. Clean, golden, buttery fruit on the nose. The palate is sensually flavoured, skitters towards heaviness but avoids it deftly with a surprising elegance to go with the peachy, delectably ripe, “soft” power on the finish. You would have to have a heart of stone not to love this…
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2029
£215/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
ESPRIT LEFLAIVE
Top-notch négociant Esprit Leflaive pushes beyond the Leflaive heartland of the Côte de Beaune and Mâconnais, into the Côte de Nuits and beyond. These two wines are early releases from the full range, which will be offered in its entirety once bottled.
BOURGOGNE BLANC
This small offering comes from five minute, biodynamically farmed plots (Champ Perrier, Les Fermelottes, Le Pré la Dame, Bluses and Les Équinces). It is a joy in 2023. Elegant, biscuity, half-rich nose, a sense of tension and restraint to the pretty perfume. The palate is ripely flavoured, supple and generous but with an impressive “dry extract” structure underneath. Impressive length as well. One to show blind and fool your friends… Very good indeed.
Corney & Barrow Score 17 - 17.5
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2028
£650/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£690/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
AUXEY-DURESSES
How this area, lying between Meursault and Saint-Romain, is coming of age. Historically, this was a “cool” appellation (in the weather sense) over which global warming has exerted a rather benevolent influence. Lovely nose of firm, ripe, yellow peach fruit. The palate is elegantly flavoured, intricate in structure and wears the solar richness of this vintage quite effortlessly. A nicely lifted, surprisingly long finish as well.
Corney & Barrow Score 17
Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2029
£570/Case of 12 bottles, in bond UK
£610/Case of 6 magnums, in bond UK
Tasting Guide
Our tasting notes provide full details but, at your request, we have also introduced a clear and simple marking system. We hope these guidelines assist you in your selection. For the benefit of simplicity, wines are scored out of 20. We will often use a range of scores (e.g. 16.5 to 17) to indicate the potential to achieve a higher mark. When a ‘+’ is shown it adds further to that potential. Wines from lesser vintages will, inevitably, show a lower overall score.
Wines are judged, in a very broad sense, against their peers. Why? Well, you cannot easily compare a Ford with an Aston Martin, other than they are both cars and have wheels. It is not that different with wine. A score is a summary only. The devil is in the detail, so please focus on the tasting notes and, as always, speak to our sales team.
DOMAINE LEFLAIVE
BOURGOGNE BLANC
Three very small plots, La Plante des Champs, Les Parties and Les Houlières, make up this wine. The one that everyone forgets, that the label-conscious ignore at their peril, that even the most passionate lovers of the domaine trip over when served blind. Reassuringly expensive? Perhaps. Or is it simply one of the great values of Burgundy? Or both? These are some of the thoughts that you toy with as you taste…
Cool, clean, fresh, green-gold fruit on the nose, so Puligny-like. The palate is silken, as if nodding to the vintage’s warmth, with supple, plump flavours, a telltale kick of minerality and a wonderfully satisfying length.
Corney & Barrow Score 17Recommended drinking from 2025 - 2029
£415/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£455/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET
This reminded me of the achingly beautiful 2020 but I am wary of my sometimes rose-tinted memory so I will settle with saying that his is simply a joy. It is a “mosaic” wine, drawing its beauty from various tiny plots (Les Tremblots, Les Brelances, Les Nosroyes, Les Reuchaux and Les Houlières) with the oldest plot, Les Tremblots, planted in 1955 and the youngest in 2004. It is a pretty matchless mosaic…
The nose is very lovely, with perfectly ripe but hightension perfume of white and gold fruit, insinuating, almost atmospheric.
The palate shows the vintage more, fruit in perfect control, with ripe, supple, freshly rich flavours balanced by a lift of clean, clear mineral length. Super wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5 - 18 Recommended drinking from 2026 - 2030
£715/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£755/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
MEURSAULT 1ER CRU SOUS LE DOS D’ÂNE
Replanted to Chardonnay from 1995, this lies very close to the Hameau de Blagny (see map on page 16) in a cool hollow that very rarely fully ripened the vineyard when it was planted to Pinot Noir.
It is hand in glove with the vintage in 2023 with that characteristic nutty, biscuity-rich nose of yellow fruit that nevertheless manages to be taut and fresh. The palate is sweetly flavoured with a hint of muscovado sugar, with supple, beautifully deployed silken flavours. Hedonistic and frankly, shameless. I loved it.
Corney & Barrow Score 17 - 17.5
Recommended drinking from 2026 - 2030
£965/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£1,005/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU CLAVOILLON
This vineyard, of which the domaine owns around 85% (wouldn’t a Monopole be a good idea) relishes “solar” vintages, partly because of its denser, cooler, heavier soil but also because the vines, dating back to 1955, appear to suffer less in torrid conditions. Whatever, this is a fine, fine wine in 2023 with a delectably taut, whitefruited nose, mineral rich. The palate is what I wrote as “subliminally creamy” by which I mean both lush and high tensile, being zesty but with proper weight, richness and authority to the really elegant and sustained finish. Almond paste, said Pierre Vincent. I nodded wisely but on reflection I have absolutely no idea what he meant.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5 - 18
Recommended drinking from 2026 - 2032
£1,125/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£1,165/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU FOLATIÈRES
This is another wine that stalks the quality of the beautiful 2020 and manages effortlessly to combine the peacock flamboyance for which this plot is famed with a mineral tension that is in defiance of the growing season. The nose is almost atmospheric in its dry power perfume alongside that characteristic succulent, golden, ripe, scented fruit. The palate is supple and with a layered richness both racy and lush. There is a lovely “attack” on the finish that lifts this splendour and weight almost effortlessly. Rather gorgeous.
Corney & Barrow Score 18
Recommended drinking from 2027 - 2032
£1,665/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£1,705/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
Please Note
These wines are sold on the clear understanding that they will be stored in and delivered to the UK only. Due to high demand many of these wines are on allocation. We ask for a balanced order as it is simply not possible or fair to other customers to give an allocation of just the Grand Crus, for example. For further advice, please speak to your usual salesperson or ring our Fine Wine Sales Team on 020 7265 2430.
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU LES COMBETTES
This wine always gets under my skin. It is so different, so aloof, so distinct geographically (see map) and stylistically so ageless that it is frequently difficult to be objective. So it is in 2023 when I started my note by saying “fractionally leaden nose, which then wearily recognises its own greatness” and shows inexpressible yearning quality with an insinuating, taut, green perfume matched by a creamy richness of old, old vine fruit. The palate is superb with a supple, dry richness of properly ripe, almost succulent flavours but beautifully held in check by a thread of super light acidity to the long, sustained finish. Very, very good indeed.
Corney & Barrow Score 18Recommended drinking from 2028 - 2033
£2,345/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£2,385/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU LES PUCELLES
So often this vineyard is the most challenging to taste in youth. Tightly wound, tense, nervy, it frequently resents the imprisonment of bottling. In the solar 2023, it is infinitely more expressive, even heart-on-sleeve, which I found rather magical. The nose is elegantly fruited for sure but is terrifically expressive with a perfume of subtly creamy, biscuity fruit, terrestrial rather than atmospheric. The palate, however, reverts to type with a nervy, high tensile acidity that almost bursts across the palate. Taut, nervy and subliminally rich and extended to the finish.
Corney & Barrow Score 17.5 - 18
Recommended drinking from 2028 - 2034
£2,750/Case of 6 bottles, in bond UK
£2,790/Case of 3 magnums, in bond UK
BIENVENUES-BÂTARD-MONTRACHET GRAND CRU
I have always found this to be a more complicated, or is that complex, wine than Bâtard. The vineyard has vines with the oldest average age of the grands crus, which may account for it but whatever, the 2023 is sublime.
Gorgeous nose of perfumed old vine golden fruit, with that almost haunting sense of dryness to go with the more earthy, biscuity, rich and nutty perfume. The palate has that perfect balance between tense, racy, layered atmospheric minerality and a profound, lithe richness and concentration. A great Bienvenues-Bâtard.
Corney & Barrow Score 18 - 19
Recommended drinking from 2028 - 2033
£2,550/Case of 3 bottles, in bond UK
£1,740/Case of 1 magnum, in bond UK
BÂTARD-MONTRACHET GRAND CRU
The domaine’s Bâtard is the “heart on sleeve” of the grands crus, a pleasure giver (and seeker) at the grandest level. It wears the vintage like a pig in clover, joyously, and with absolute confidence. The nose is creamily gold and white fruited, with layers of super-ripe sweet perfume. The palate, as always, is dense, chewy-rich, with sensuous and generous flavours but lifted into almost perfect balance by a fine acidity. I still think it would be a slightly alarming mate for Richebourg…
Corney & Barrow Score 18
Recommended drinking from 2028 - 2035
£2,875/Case of 3 bottles, in bond UK
£1,960/Case of 1 magnum, in bond UK
CHEVALIER-MONTRACHET GRAND CRU
Stylistically this is the most distinctive of the grands crus. Where, unsurprisingly, the Bienvenues-Bâtard and the Bâtard-Montrachet are cousins of sorts — more or less distant — Chevalier is apart, lying on thinner, meaner soil just above Le Montrachet (see map on page 16). The 2023 may have some of the liquorous quality of the vintage but, not unlike the 2022, it wears the stamp of the vintage very lightly.
The nose has a mineral perfume, carapaced, even subdued, with only elusive flashes of subliminally rich, old vine fruit. The palate is more open, powerful, dense with a clenched tension and acidity, an authoritative, deeply flavoured concentration and profound depth. It is perhaps a little simplistic to call Chevalier a masculine wine but I can’t think of a better word. Whatever, it is great wine.
Corney & Barrow Score 19
Recommended drinking from 2029 - 2036
£3,495/Case of 3 bottles, in bond UK
£2,370/Case of 1 magnum, in bond UK
VINEYARD HOLDINGS
P l a n du D om a i n e
P l a n du D om a i n e
G R A N DS C R U S 4 , 8 H A
Montrachet
G R A N DS C R U S 4 , 8 H A
G R A N DS C R U S 4 8 H A
Montrachet
Chevalier-Montrachet
Bâtard-Montrachet
Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
P R E M I E R S C R U S 1 0 , 8 H A
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles
Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes
Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières
Puligny-Montrachet Le Clavoillon
Chassagne-Montrachet La Maltroie
Meursault Sous le Dos d ’Âne
novemb re 2016
P U L I G N Y- MO NT R A C HE T V I L L A G E 4 6 H A
Montrachet
Chevalier-Montrachet
Les Tremblots
Bâtard-Montrachet
Chevalier-Montrachet
La Rue aux Vaches
Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
Bâtard-Montrachet
Bienvenues Bâtard-Montrachet
P R E M I E R S C R U S 1 0 , 8 H A
Les Brelances
Les Grands Champs
Les Nosroyes
Les Reuchaux
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles
P R E M I E R S C R U S 1 0 8 H A
Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes
Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles
Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes
B O U R G O G N E B L A N C 4 H A
Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières
Puligny-Montrachet Le Clavoillon
Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatières
Les Parties
Chassagne-Montrachet La Maltroie
Puligny-Montrachet Le Clavoillon
Les Houlières
Chassagne-Montrachet La Maltroie
Meursault Sous le Dos d ’Âne
Meursault Sous le Dos d ’Âne
P U L I G N Y- MO NT R A C HE T V I L L A G E 4 , 6 H A
Les Tremblots
P U L I G N Y- MO NT R A C HE T V I L L A G E 4 , 6 H A
La Plante des Champs
La Rue aux Vaches
Les Tremblots
Les Brelances
La Rue aux Vaches
Les Brelances
Les Grands Champs
Les Grands Champs
L N novemb re 2016
Les Nosroyes
RECOMMENDED DRINKING DATES
We are regularly asked for more specific drinking dates for white Burgundies.
For your interest and reference we have included our original recommendations made at the launch of the new vintages below.
* Too early for revision
Here, therefore, are specific recommendations of drinking dates for every recent vintage. Of course, taste is a personal thing and these dates are conservative, but having tasted and analysed these wines over the last few years, we believe that starting to open them within the windows indicated will ensure maximum enjoyment.
Domaine Leflaive started using technical Diam corks in the 2014 vintage, alongside an overhaul of its handling, cellar equipment and processes. Although our drinking dates remain cautious, vintages from 2014 onwards can be opened with an increased degree of confidence.
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