Dom. Leflaive
Clavoillon Premier Cru
Puligny-Montrachet
2019

The producer

The name Leflaive and Puligny-Montrachet seem entwined in the history of the Puligny village and its finest wines. The family have lived in Puligny since 1717, with the fame of the wines developing under the guidance of Joseph Leflaive, then his sons Vincent and later another Jo. In the 1980s Leflaive white Burgundies were considered the pinnacle of the Cote d’Or and commanded prices to match. Anne-Claude Leflaive converted the domaine to biodynamics in the 1990s and further vineyard refinements have continued by her successors.

The domaine has holdings in the finest of the Premier Cru vineyards and all the Puligny-side Grand Crus. There is no estate that can offer such an exceptional array of the very best wines from Puligny-Montrachet. Leflaive’s white wines are consistently amongst the best wines of the Puligny commune and much sought-after favourites amongst connoisseurs and sommeliers the world over. 

Regrettably they also come with a heavy price tag and although the Grand Crus are undeniably fabulous, at more than £1000 a bottle (and £10,000 for the Montrachet) they are difficult to recommend. However, within this context, we always try to find (relative) value, especially from the Premier Crus and even the odd Grand Cru. 

The wine

Leflaive owns 4.80 hectares of Clavoillon, which makes them the largest landowner here. Clavoillon faces due east and is lying next to Les Pucelles on the mid-slope, although with heavier soil composition than its neighbours. The wine ferments in oak casks and following ages for 12-14 months up to 80% new French oak barrels. These are wines of a certain structured generosity and a rich texture.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.