2021 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru La Vougeraie

A rather bold bouquet of verbena, peony and tree blooms start this Chevalier, which is magnanimous with its flavor spectrum. Flavors range from tangerine to guava to honey, all accented with resin, hay and light toast notes. The acidity is turbo-charged but there is ample underlying fruit to carry it.

(from a .15 ha holding that produced only 450 bottles in 2021). This too manifests a hint of the exotic with its ripe nose of mostly white orchard fruits, tangerine, acacia blossom and jasmine tea nuances. There is an abundance of mouthcoating dry extract that really fills out the mid-palate of the full-bodied and intensely mineral-driven flavors that possess both outstanding volume and ample power, all wrapped in a textured, balanced and lingering if mildly austere finish. This is excellent and in particular, I very much like the highly sophisticated texture. Impressive.

The 2021 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru is clean and precise on the nose, with fine mineralité in situ (more than the Bâtard-Montrachet) and touches of almond, hazelnut and lanolin. The palate is well-balanced and slightly honeyed in texture. It's powerful with good weight. Perhaps missing some tension towards the finish, but it delivers a fine, quite nutty aftertaste. Very fine.

The fullest yellow of the four grands crus. Slightly the richest nose, heady even with a light suggestion of over ripeness, in that sense less typically Chevalier. It is almost a wine in two halves with an exotic start and a more crystalline limestone finish.