2019 Chateau de la Maltroye Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru, Cote de Beaune, France 750ml

Arriving November 2021

Tasting note: This is unusually restrained and requires aggressive swirling to slowly reveal its aromas of beautifully spiced poached pear, freshly sliced apple and citrus confit. The strikingly refined and equally restrained middle weight flavors are not super-dense but there is focused power to the almost delicate yet massively persistent finish. This is flat out superb though I wouldn't describe it as a typical Bâtard in that it's more a wine of finesse than muscle. Either way, this is seriously impressive and one of the best examples of Bâtard in the 2019 vintage.

Jean-Pierre Cournut noted 2019 is a "surprisingly good vintage, especially in white, given how hot the growing season was. We picked from the 9th of September and the fruit literally could not have been any cleaner as there was basically no sorting at all. The fruit was also perfectly ripe and with good total acidities as I made no additions of any kind. Yields are another story though as we were off from 40 to 60% in white while the volumes in pinot varied from 30 to 35 hl/ha, which isn't too bad. The skins in both colors were quite thick so for the reds I vinified very softly. One of the interesting aspects for the whites is how dry they fermented out as there was essentially zero residual sugar, which is unusual as there is almost always some small amount of unfermentable sugar that remains. I like this vintage a lot as the wines are full of tension and the terroir transparency is excellent." Cournut is justifiably well-known for the quality of his whites and 2019 should only add to that renown as many of them are outstanding and in particular the Bâtard and the Dent de Chien followed closely by the La Romanée. Cournut noted that the 2019 whites were bottled in November 2020.