Côte de Beaune 2021: New Releases

This vineyard is tucked up at the top of the village on the border with Auxey-Duresses. The cooler hilltop position helps the wine retain a terrific mineral drive. Just one barrel was made in 2021. Its 50-year-old vines produce concentrated stone fruit flavours and aromas, that when ripened to perfection, as in 2021, make for a fleshy, full, savoury wine with lots of impact. Wonderful.

This village parcel is in the north of the commune, bordering Puligny-Montrachet. If you were to stand here and turn your gaze up the hill, you’d notice you are spitting distance from Bâtard-Montrachet, with only the thin sliver of Vide Bourse 1er Cru between. This wine has such a satisfyingly silky weight and a pleasing floral note on the nose . Its Chassagne roots show in the slightly nutty, savoury structure, and the influence of Puligny peaks through in the nervous, steely finish. It’s definitely more than an average village wine. Delicious.

You’d expect this wine to be one of the best in the stable: from home turf, made from a magnificent blend of grapes from all but two of the village’s lieux-dits in 2021. It is one of the most complete and compelling portraits of the village you’ll find, and it’s a wine to remind you that these Olivier Leflaive wines are not only the most benchmark example of their appellations, but also some of the most exciting in their category. This is everything Puligny should be, and more: tight, steely, nervous, and in 2021, fabulously concentrated in rich fruit with a long, chalky, mineral finish

Champlots is a steep site, just next to Frionnes, and can be back-breaking work for the pickers. They pick early in the morning here, both to preserve the freshness of the fruit and to give the pickers the benefit of the cooler morning temperatures. The vines are relatively young - just 15 years - and the limestone soils make a charming style of St-Aubin. This was aged in 1 year old oak and only one barrel was made in 2021 compared to six the year before. Slightly richer nose with floral and light spicy notes, this has some deliciously plump lemony fruit, fresh acidity, a mineral core and a lip-smacking saline finish.