For my birthday dinner yesterday I thought I’d crack open one of my last two bottles of Leflaive Chevalier. This used to be one of my favorite wines but with all the oxidation issues, I stopped buying. The last time I opened these two vintages for Alan Weinberg they were both oxidized so at least if these were, I could pull another good bottle from the cellar. At 5 PM I choose the 2007 since it seemed to be the darker than the 2004 looking through the bottles. The cork came out a little too easily which concerned me a bit. A small pour into a Zalto showed that the wine seemed to be in good shape with a nice bright golden color with a green tint to it. Then a sip calmed my nerves and the wine was okay. The color was proper for a 13 year old wine but compared to a 2008 PYCM Batard recently, the Leflaive showed much more than a year older. The nose started off with more aged notes of honey and caramel rather than flowery and with a couple hours some anise and menthol came through a bit. The body of the wine seemed a bit lighter than normal but the finish lasted quite a while. Over the course of 5 hours it never quite reached the heights of some Leflaive Chevaliers I have had, including a recent killer 2001, but still a very good bottle.
happy birthday—it’s a big one—glad you got a good bottle to celebrate. I’m done w Leflaive. The premox, high prices, and lack of responsibility finish the trifecta for moving on.
Happy Birthday Jerry, good to see notes on Grand Cru whites and Leflaive, they seem fewer and farther between.
I might have even gotten the 2007 from you, Kris. Maybe??
Yes there are almost no notes anymore on GC whites - just too expensive.
Happy Birthday Jerry!
Happy Birthday. I am glad it held up much better than my 09 Meursault 1er Cru Sous le Dos d’Âne. That one got dumped on Friday. Out of magnum none the less.
George
Happy Birthday Jerry.
Happy Birthday Jerry!
07 Leflaive Chevalier that isn’t premoxed is a rare gift indeed!
Happy Birthday! Glad that you got a good performance there. I got priced out of the Leflaive Grand Crus after the 2004 vintage. I still bought Pucelles through 2009 and then fell off of that too. I haven’t bought since 2013. Coincidentally, I enjoyed a 2013 Bourgogne Blanc last night with chicken pot pie. Very sharp showing for this one with no oxidation problems evident. I’d be curious to try post Anne Claude era wines (on someone else’s dime).
Thanks,
fred
Leflaive is pricey indeed. I do think that recent vintages are on fire. While others have more breadth of experience than I do, in '16 and '17, closed under DIAM, I think they’re firmly back in the top tier. Which would be great because Leflaive from about '99-'02 probably made my favorite White Burgs ever.
happy birthday!!
Happy birthday, and always great to see a happy note on Leflaive and on 2007. Two months ago we had a great bottle of '96 Leflaive Chevalier, and Alex Goldstein expressed what I feel perfectly in his CT tasting note: “Every time I have one of the epic '96’s from Leflaive, it reminds me of how vast the damage has been in later years from premature oxidation. When Leflaive was on, there really was nothing better.”
Happy birthday. About a year ago I decided (with some trepidation) to crack open my OWC 6 pack of ‘07 Leflaive Chevy. First bottle dark yellow, sherry smell clearly premoxed. Stunned, I opened a second one. This bottle was even more severely premoxed, almost brown color and tasted of bad sherry and rotten apples. At this point I was determined to keep opening bottles until I found a good one. The next bottle was spectacular, razor sharp acidity and piercing minerality. As a previous fanatic of Leflaive it’s just so frustrating and demoralizing. Glad you had a good one!
In what vintage did Domaine Leflaive begin to use DIAM?
Was it the same for the Grand Cru and Premier Cru?
Any reports that the 14s or 15s are beginning to die?
I think (but am not certain) that ‘15 was the first DIAM vintage and I believe it’s used across the range.
I don’t have any current intel on how the ‘14s or ‘15s are doing.
2014 was first vintage under DIAM.
Tasted the full range of 2017 at the domaine. IMHO probably the greatest vintage for them that I can recall. Stunning! All under Diam.
Leflaive is back in a big way. Their recent releases are phenomenal, and while time will tell, I have much greater confidence that they will age appropriately. The prices are rich, but finally the wines are at least arguably worth the premium. Among their 1er crus, the Pucelles and Combettes in both 2016 and 2017 are beautiful. I say all of this as someone who has had some atrocious bottles of Leflaive from the 2000’s and select 1990’s vintages. If you are skeptical, give some Domaine de Vougeraie whites from 2010-14 a spin. They are aging beautifully. So Pierre Vincent must be doing something right.
i’ll let someone else experiment on Leflaive at that price point to see how well they are gonna do.
I can’t speak for every State, and won’t, but I have always picked up corked or pox’d bottles and replaced them with current vintage in WA if they were purchased from us. 100% at my cost. Same goes for Jadot.