Batard Montrachet Tasting

Batard Montrachet Tasting

I have called for a Batard Montrachet tasting about a year ago, but due to the pandemic, we deferred it till a year later to have it. Thank goodness all of us still can participate in this tasting. Everyone happily contributed a bottle or more to make today’s tasting a truly eventful tasting. These are the lineups of the bottles featured, of which I organized them in relevant flights at my own discretion:

Flight 1
Lucien Le Moine 2010
Bachelet Monnot 2016
Paul Pernot 2016
Lucien Le Moine was a bit cheezy on the bouquet, along with pleasant approach and relatively high acidity, carried a bit of lime and bitterness. My favorite was the Bachelet Monnot on this flight, surprisingly didn’t really reveal the youthfulness of this wine, very mellow, matured and relatively complex, sharp and focused. Paul Pernot was a disappointment with very dense fruits and low acidity. Overall, the Bachelet Monnot was the favorite for this flight. The Connoisseurs summarized this flight aptly; the quality wasn’t quite Batard Montrachet, but rather a good premier cru standard.

Flight 2
Leflaive 2009
Leflaive 2008
Leflaive 2007
It was with luck and like mindedness that we get a sequential flight of Leflaive to compose this flight, without duplication of vintages! It was truly stunning flight. When I nosed the 2009, I swear it was at Montrachet level, with ultra elegance. Palate was even nicer, so beautiful and elegant, definitely a Montrachet standard with very high quality represented. However, the 2008 took the lime light with everything that 2009 possessed, with more. Very expressive. Overwhelming attendees voted this as the flight’s favorite. The 2007 wasn’t disappointing with good acidity, but somehow lacked elegance of 2009 and depth of 2008, a bit stony.

Flight 3
Leflaive 1997
Ramonet 1999
Ramonet 2013
Color of Leflaive 1997 was overly yellowish, but it wasn’t a pre mox bottle, just too ripe and advanced for it’s age. It still possessed very good acidity, however, character was quite different from the previous flight of Leflaive, somehow lacked elegance, though with rich mellowness. Ramonet 1999 was surprisingly possessing low acidity, but it more than made up by it’s rich and matured style, with heavy density of fruits in the body. Ramonet 2013 was very characteristics of Ramonet, one can tell on the bouquet of the unique spearmint, with ocean freshness. Body was fresh, perky, energetic, and one can associate the 2013 with the 1999 as it was almost similar style, except 1999 was with age. Ramonet 2013 took the lime light in this flight with majority voted for it. However, my favorite was the 1999.

Flight 4
(double blind contributed by two connoisseurs, each contribute two bottles)
Vincent Girardin 2006
Louis Latour 1989
Jean Noel Gagnard 2004
Nicholas Potel Les Combettes 1990 (slightly out of theme but the point is proven)
Our friend placed a ringer into this flight without telling us, obviously violating the theme, but given his status, we can forgive him for his blatant violation. The outcome was great, majority voted for this Nicholas Potel’s Les Combettes 1990 as the best wine of the flight. Obviously possessing age, with bouquet of straw. It expressed itself as a deep, rich and old fashioned white burgundy, sink deep into the palate, very enjoyable. Vincent Girardin’s 2006 was a bit of a trouble maker, slightly sour, clean and sharp, youthful. Louis Latour’s 1989 was ripe, mellow and elegant, with a coating of caramel and pop corn, another old fashion classic winemaking style. Jean Noel Gagnard’s 2004 was filled with loads of elegance, mellow, never overpowering, pristine and pure taste, deserved the best runner up of the flight.

Summary
Let me put the Master of Wine’s words into perspective when I asked whether there’s a unique characteristic for Batard Montrachet? Our MW’s firm answer is – there is no definitive characteristics, they are all dependent upon winemaker’s style.
And this statement summarizes this tasting that I concur with his opinion that there is no definitive character for Batard Montrachet, each and every winemaker’s style is different, and the outcome of the content is also different. Thus, don’t bother trying to second guess a bottle of Batard Montrachet, I think it’s almost impossible to do that. Although one maybe able to tell the solid content from Leflaive’s Batard Montrachet that it possesses very solid content, and very classic winemaking style, that one is able to tell it’s a high quality wine.
Enjoy! Article Written by Wine by Bok