2023 VINTAGE, EN PRIMEUR
ANNIVERSARY TH
Olivier Leflaive
INTRODUCTION
2024 is a landmark year for Olivier Leflaive
As I write this in early July, we have just returned from Burgundy, where we celebrated Olivier Leflaive’s 40th anniversary at Clos Vougeot and at the home of Julie Leflaive, Olivier’s daughter, in Puligny-Montrachet. These extraordinary events drew over 200 guests from across France and around the globe - growers, suppliers, agents, importers, distributors and journalists - friends of the house, closely linked with Olivier Leflaive at some point. Among them were a few, like Corney & Barrow, who have been part of Olivier’s story from the very beginning.
Since that bright, cold day in April 1984 when the clocks were striking thirteen and Olivier first set up on his own with three tonneaux and two tanks, this modest Burgundy house has forged an impressive reputation, building a loyal worldwide following and garnering increasing critical acclaim.
Yet despite this global recognition won over four decades, Olivier Leflaive maintains a small-house ethos, a sense of family values, where everything is carried out ‘by hand’ by a small and loyal team, committed to quality, always.
Taking the stage at Clos Vougeot to reflect on 40 years of Olivier Leflaive, Olivier framed his successes in terms of ‘chance et opportunité’ - serendipitous meetings with distributors and the timely involvement of trusted family members. I might have said to Olivier: ‘Luck does not exist. What you call luck is attention to detail’. While I cannot take credit for those words, (they are Churchill’s), they are apt. Lord of Misrule, entrepreneur, businessman, entertainer: however you characterise Olivier, his achievements are rooted in sheer hard graft.
Perhaps his most inspired decision of all time was appointing the young Franck Grux as Technical Director in 1989. Some 35 years later, the extent to which Olivier Leflaive’s current reputation can be attributed to Franck and his devoted viticultural and winemaking team, is undeniable. Franck, who retired at the end of last year after a distinguished career, has been instrumental in shaping Olivier Leflaive’s signature style - approachable yet sophisticated, with an emphasis on freshness, structural clarity and a distinct sense of place.
In 2008 Olivier ‘retired’ officially, handing the baton to a new CEO Jean Soubeyrand, while remaining involved in the business in different ways. Known for his ambitious and pragmatic leadership, Jean has built on Olivier’s foundations, while taking the company into new territory, both creative and strategic. Major investments include a new chai dedicated to red wine production, as well as expansion into Champagne with operations in the Côte des Blancs. Furthermore, under the custodianship of Julie Leflaive, the company has further enhanced its hospitality offering, renovating and expanding its award-winning hotel-restaurant in Puligny-Montrachet. Exciting times, even more so with Julie becoming progressively involved in the core wine business, a smart move with an eye to the future.
The acquisition of additional vineyards has also reinforced the long-term strategy. Olivier Leflaive now owns over 20 hectares of prime vineyards on the Côte, while continuing to buy fruit from 100 or so grower partners, some of whom have supplied them since the outset. These are important relationships, giving the house the wealth of diverse sources needed to produce its kaleidoscopic 90-strong range of official cuvées each year, as well as small-batch wines for long-standing customers like Corney & Barrow.
And so to 2024 and to a new era, with young talent Solène Panigai at the viticultural and winemaking helm, formally taking over the role of Technical Director, following Franck Grux’s retirement in 2023. A native of Champagne,
agronomist and top oenology graduate, Solène deepened her love for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir while working in Oregon, and has since gained wide-ranging experience in Burgundy and beyond. Working intensively for the past two harvests with Franck and his long-serving technical team, Philippe Grillet and Bertrand Guillemaut, Solène has been steadily absorbing the Olivier Leflaive approach, getting to know from all angles vignerons and vineyards, as well as individual cuvées upon which the house has built its name. Mirroring her mentor perhaps, it would seem that she has already acquired something of a reputation for her demanding work ethic both in the vineyards and the chai!
So, we are delighted to be sharing her first solo vintage with you. Just a few weeks ago, Solène came to our headquarters in London to present her inaugural vintage to the Corney & Barrow team, who had either travelled to our London premises or were zooming in from our UK hubs in Edinburgh, Leeds and Newmarket. For Solène, this was a 24-hour round-trip; as she explained somewhat apologetically, she had ‘a couple of things to do’ in the two days remaining of her week: 30+ vignerons to meet, at least as many hectares of vineyards to inspect, and numerous barrels to assess (even the lees must be tasted, an insight that intrigued the team; these are details few of us non-winemakers might imagine). And that is the point: the devil IS in the detail; this is the Olivier Leflaive way, and in Solène I sense we have a new and worthy custodian.
REBECCA PALMER ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, HEAD OF MERCHANTING BUYING
July 2024
SOLÈNE PANIGAI, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Solène Panigai
THE 2023 VINTAGE
An Olympic vintage, where each vineyard was a different, highmaintenance athlete clamouring for attention, playing with its own rules and requirements. And we had to get them all over the finish line!
Un millésime olympique, où chaque vignoble était un athlète différent, nécessitant beaucoup d’entretien, réclamant de l’attention, jouant avec ses propres règles et exigences, et il fallait les amener tous jusqu’à la ligne d’arrivée!
SOLÈNE PANIGAI, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
2023 was anything but smooth sailing for Burgundy’s vignerons. Working with nature is a constant balancing act, where growers must harness the positives and mitigate the negatives, always bracing for uncertainty. However, one certainty looms large for the Olivier Leflaive team: the growing impact of climate change. There is no denying the shift in the traditional rhythms of the seasons; temperatures are often more extreme and unforeseen, rainfall patterns erratic. Vineyards are reacting in different and sometimes unexpected ways, with specific plots ripening much earlier or later, puzzling growers and requiring different management strategies. This has become more than a little demanding.
The 2023 season perfectly illustrated these challenges. Temperatures were notably mild through the preceding autumn and winter (January was 2°C warmer than usual for example) and continued through the early months of the year. Alarmingly, there was no meaningful rain. In fact by February, the region had recorded an 80% deficit in average annual rainfall. While showers in March helped to some extent, there was simply not enough. The season kicked into
high gear at the end of April when the sun came out in full force, and temperatures soared. This trend continued for nearly three months, with the once-resplendent heat and sun becoming relentless. Unsurprisingly, this led to a cycle of intense heat punctuated by violent thunderstorms and temporary drops in temperature, leading to considerable disease pressure.
August brought its own rollercoaster. Temperatures plummeted for ten days before surging again for a fortnight, only to fall once more at the month’s end. These drastic fluctuations disrupted the ripening process, which accelerated uncontrollably at times, only to slow to a crawl at others. This unpredictable stop-start cycle put immense pressure on growers, upsetting carefully laid plans and keeping them on tenterhooks. Unsurprisingly, ripening was uneven from vineyard to vineyard and even within plots, demanding great vigilance and agility from growers. As a result, the team at Olivier Leflaive stepped up their grape sampling process, to ensure that their assessments of ripeness were as precise as possible. This was key to determining optimal harvest dates, parcel by parcel.
Solène Panigai.
Patrick Leflaive & Olivier Leflaive.
Rebecca Palmer (Associate Director, Head of Merchanting Buying) attending the 40th Anniversary celebrations.
Adam Brett-Smith (Managing Director, Corney & Barrow) attending the 40th Anniversary celebrations.
Julie Leflaive
40th Anniversary celebration at Clos Vougeot - ‘le gateau dans le château’.
September was to prove an extraordinary month, as temperatures soared into a second summer, averaging almost 20°C across the month. Harvest at Olivier Leflaive began on 1st September and concluded on 16th, later than in recent vintages.
As expected, the whites were harvested earlier (though not always in the expected order!), seeking that allimportant fraîcheur, the freshness underpinning Olivier Leflaive’s enduring house style. The technical team has always favoured picking on the early side, to preserve vital acidities. The trajectory of the Pinot Noirs was less straight forward. The vagaries of August, particularly the combination of scorching heat and lack of rainfall, were difficult for sensitive Pinot, so it was not until the first or second week of September that the grapes could be coaxed to ripeness. Sorting was key in this vintage, both in the vineyard and at the winery, to eliminate bunches that were not quite ripe or less than pristine.
Talking about her experience of 2023, and with a nod to the Olympic games taking place shortly in France, Solène remarked with a wry smile that it felt indeed like an Olympic vintage, where each vineyard was a different high-maintenance athlete clamouring for attention, playing with its own rules and requirements. And they had to get them all over the finish line! Nonetheless, despite the ‘Olympian’ challenges, Solène characterises 2023 as a generous vintage, both in quantity and style. The whites are elegant and expressive, generous yet classically styled, with the emphasis on freshness, and with a clear sense of place, even at this stage. Further time in barrel and on lees is required to refine the profile of certain wines, adding dimension and weight, with others will be racked earlier, to retain freshness and tension. In a year where reds will show significant variation in quality and style, the two red wines we are offering en primeur show remarkable purity of fruit and fine tannin structure, with the signature freshness of the house.
A note on the 2023 vintage offer:
The 2023 vintage may have been challenging from a viticultural point of view – read above for insights on the growing season – but however demanding the conditions, yields were certainly a little more generous than in recent vintages. The benefits are twofold: firstly, after some years now, we are able to offer slightly more healthy quantities of certain wines, and even re-instate our popular ‘barrel offer’, which we have been unable to do in the last few years, due to scarcity. Secondly, the team at Olivier Leflaive –mindful of sizeable price increases in recent years – has managed finally to leverage price reductions on all cuvées, by no means straightforward given the complexities of grower-courtier relationships, and a market fraught with the imbalance of supply and demand. We applaud the team for this achievement and are passing on every centime. In a market where so many of Burgundy’s wines have become inaccessible to so many, this is important.
WINES
BOURGOGNE ALIGOTÉ
A lovely, refreshing Aligoté, its gentle orchard fruit enlivened by the bite of yellow plum and the quenching finish of a citron pressé. The magic of this wine lies in its blend of eight very different parcels, all with their own fruit profile, and all picked rather late, a happy accident one year that demonstrated how characterful and stylish Aligoté can be when left on the vine just a few days, or a week or two, longer. The core of the blend is Olivier’s own rather venerable vineyard in Corpeau, old vines bringing concentration and harmony, supplemented by fruit from Meursault and Puligny.
Corney & Barrow Score 18
Recommended drinking from 2024 – 2027
Estimated arrival UK: November 2024
£95/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
BOURGOGNE BLANC LES SÉTILLES
Les Sétilles is emblematic of the house. A quintessential ‘cuvée ronde,’ this Bourgogne Blanc has always punched above its weight, with its classical creamy fruit and deft oak; stylish without being overstated. The grapes are sourced from approximately 80 parcels in several villages, giving a diverse range of characteristics. A substantial portion of the fruit comes from Puligny and Meursault, the heart of the blend - Puligny giving the wine its citric charge of energy and chalky texture, while Meursault brings its sensual curve and buttercream richness.
Corney & Barrow Score 18+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2028
Estimated arrival UK: Early 2025
£130/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
£160/CASE OF 12 HALVES, IN BOND UK
£295/CASE OF 6 MAGNUMS, IN BOND UK
Also available for barrel purchase (300 bottles equivalent):
£5,690 per barrel
MONTAGNY 1ER CRU BONNEVEAUX
A world-wide exclusivity of C&B, made specially for us for many years, Bonneveaux has become a cherished favourite among staff and customers. Its sunny, sloping site yields a classic white Burgundy with vibrant energy and clarity, light on its feet initially, while gaining appealing weight over time. The 2023 vintage shines with its lovely fruit purity, the silky palate enhanced by fresh hazelnuts and a hint of clove lifting the finish.
Corney & Barrow Score 18+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2028
Estimated arrival UK: Early 2025
£180/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
£420/CASE OF 6 MAGNUMS, IN BOND UK
Also available for barrel purchase (300 bottles equivalent):
£7,875 per barrel
AUXEY-DURESSES LA MACABRÉE
An exceptional site adjacent to Meursault Vireuils, the etymology of the vineyard name links it to ‘marais’ and ‘marécage’ (marsh), likely referring to its deep calcareous clays that retain moisture — a crucial feature in times of scarce rainfall. This wine is a delight, a ‘mini-Meursault’ of sorts, with everything in its place: a curve of ripe fruit and sense of substance, a hint of smoky oak. The palate is generous, gently creamy and satisfying, with its crème pâtissière texture and tang of sunny fruit, retaining a sense of lightness and verticality. Beautifully balanced, all in just proportion.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2029
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£210/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
PERNAND-VERGELESSES
Produced in tiny quantities, Olivier Leflaive’s exquisite Pernand combines fruit from two exceptional parcels: Les Combottes (mid-slope) and Les Pins (a higher, slightly cooler site). The blend of the two gives a lively, upright wine with concentrated fruit and incisive, chalky acidity. The 2023 vintage is lovely, capturing the athletic aliveness of Pernand, while also showing a little more weight and sensuality than we might have expected 10 or 20 years ago (climate change can have some benefits perhaps?). Charged with energy, its lissom fruit and light crème fraîche texture are held precisely by crystalline acids, the finish perfumed with white flowers.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2029
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£215/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
SAINT-AUBIN 1ER CRU EN REMILLY
Perched on an exposed plateau high above the sloping vineyards of Puligny, En Remilly is a cool, windswept site scattered with chalk stones. In a warm, sunny vintage like 2023, this exceptional lieu-dit truly shines: ripe and expansive yet precise and on point - indeed ‘en pointes’ in the balletic sense, perfectly poised. A classic ‘En Rem’, detailed and delicate, the wine somehow conveys a sense of the whiteness of the soil. Its supple poached pear fruit and airy, light cream texture are at once generous yet refined, the finish scented and mineral.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2029
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£280/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
SAINT-AUBIN 1ER CRU DENTS DE CHIEN
Dents de Chien is a distinguished parcel, part of which offers a stunning view of the grand cru vineyards of Montrachet and Chevalier-Montrachet. Its warm shallow soils are interspersed with limestone pebbles, producing wines with a distinctive richness and seam of minerality. In this ripe vintage, the wine is both intense and inviting, layering poached pears and lemon curd with sensuous crème pâtissière, rich minerals spreading across the palate in a wave. But there is a palpable tension too, reminiscent of Puligny.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2029
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£280/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET LES MEIX
Les Meix is another C&B exclusive, made for us by Olivier Leflaive for many years. The majority of the blend comes from Olivier’s own half-hectare of vines on chalky clays, planted in 1961. A clue to its pedigree lies in its location! Directly beneath Pucelles, this site gives wines with purity and precision, that tight-rope tension of richness and restraint. The 2023 is a fine example, its silky, spiced pear fruit wound tightly around a firm acid core, crackling with stony minerals. At last tasting in mid-June 2024, it had begun to gain a subtle weight, fleshing out its filigree bone structure.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2031+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£440/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
MEURSAULT CLOS DE LA VELLE
Clos de la Velle has been part of the Olivier Leflaive stable since 2016, and we took it on last year. The site is a charming walled vineyard at the foot of the coteau. Its deep clay-limestone soils produce ‘classic’ Meursaults, generous and expressive. The 2023 vintage is immediately beguiling with its bergamot scent. Silky and ripe on the palate, it has an elegant curve, balancing creamy layers of fleshy poached pear fruit with the signature freshness of the house.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2025 – 2032+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£375/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
£790/CASE OF 6 MAGNUMS, IN BOND UK
PULIGNY-MONTRACHET 1ER CRU LES REFERTS
Les Referts is a site of some distinction. Its immediate neighbours give a clue perhaps, to the quality and style of its wines - the lieu-dit lies just below Puligny Combettes and next to Meursault Charmes, and in riper vintages particularly, there is a sense of both in its wines. The 2023 is textbook Puligny in its precision and minerality. Initially reserved, the wine unfolds powerfully over the palate, with layers of ripe, creamy fruit suggestive of Meursault. Opulent yet precisely cut, this is a statuesque, long-line Referts, poised and refined.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2026 – 2034+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2026
£320//CASE OF 3 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
CHASSAGNE-MONTRACHET BLANCHOTS
Blanchots is an exceptional Chassagne, in a class of its own, and a true ‘insider’s wine’. Once part of BâtardMontrachet, this lieu-dit was later reclassified (not without contention!), a factor of varied soils within the parcel. Olivier Leflaive’s vines occupy the ‘posh end,’ on fine calcareous clays, producing wines with elegance and aliveness. The 2023 vintage is an outstanding example, exquisitely drawn, lacy and filigree yet sensual and inviting. Its delicate mille-feuille frame layers creamy, toned fruit with minerals and seamless oak, beautifully judged.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5 - 19
Recommended drinking from 2024 – 2034+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£395/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
£840/CASE OF 6 MAGNUMS, IN BOND UK
Also available for barrel purchase (300 bottles equivalent): £17,280 per barrel
CHASSAGNE-MONTRACHET
1ER CRU ABBAYE DE MORGEOT ‘RÉCOLTE DU DOMAINE’
Chassagne is an appellation renowned for both white and red wines, a factor partly of its diverse soils. Its white wines stand out for their structure and power, revealing their charm over time. Olivier bought two distinguished vineyard parcels in this premier cru, all those years ago. Their deep blue clay-limestone soils yield wines that are both intense and expansive, with a firm backbone. The 2023 vintage is a classic Morgeot, commanding attention. Multi-layered, silky and complex, this is a fascinating wine in Solène’s hands, its suave layers refined by ageing in Seguin-Moreau and Chassin barrels, giving a touch of welcome reductiveness without excess. Self-assured, yet with a discreet touch. As always, will repay cellaring.
Corney & Barrow Score 19
Recommended drinking from 2026 – 2034+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2026
£310/CASE OF 3 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
SANTENAY
Olivier’s Santenay is the fruit of 40-year-old vines from two very different parcels, one high on the coteau on clay-limestone soils, the other lower down on deeper silty clays. The blend is carefully put together, layering bright fruit in an elegant frame. Solène has made some subtle but important changes to the management of the grapes and musts, for example cooling down the grapes on reception at the winery to preserve fruit freshness, and refining extraction techniques, preferring pump-overs to pigéage. The resulting wine is deliciously fragrant, juicy and supple. Ripe with fresh cherry and wild strawberry fruit, there is a lovely sense of mid-palate fluidity to this wine, supported by fine tannins. Supremely drinkable.
Corney & Barrow Score 18 - 18.5
Recommended drinking from 2026 – 2034+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£175/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, 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.
PERNAND-VERGELESSES 1ER CRU LES FICHOTS
This premier cru climat lies below Corton Grand Cru, on clay-limestone soils. The vineyard is largely on the flat but as a result, benefits from impressive sun exposure. Olivier Leflaive’s fruit comes from an old parcel (50-yearold vines) giving small, concentrated grapes – even more so this year thanks to meticulous vineyard management and sorting in the vineyard and at the winery. Les Fichots yields typically dark, densely structured wines; Solène’s gentle handling respects the classic frame while bringing subtle refinements – a certain succulence to the fruit, a velvety quality to the tannins. The palate balances ripe plums and sour cherries with a meaty, dark chocolate profile lifted by spice. This is a serious wine, sleek and savoury.
Corney & Barrow Score 18.5+
Recommended drinking from 2026 – 2034+
Estimated arrival UK: Spring 2025
£200/CASE OF 6 BOTTLES, IN BOND UK
