2020 Bâtard Montrachet Grand Cru Domaine Bachelet-Monnot

Mid lemon yellow. The nose is quite hard to tease out. Some apples a suggestion of power, which really comes out on the palate. Almost a bit heated, almost too much. I am sure this will come together but not quite showing today. You can see there is much more though. Powerful white fruit. Some ripe citrus starts to appear at the back. This is a sleeper which may very well deliver a great deal more than I am giving it now.

The 2020 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a brilliantly defined bouquet of tensile citrus fruit, petrichor and just a touch of dewy meadow. The fresh, taut palate is medium-bodied with a fine bead of acidity, focused and saline. It tightens up toward the austere finish. There is not a huge difference between this and the Les Referts and Folatières, to be honest, but it remains a bona fide stupendous white Burgundy.

(from a .1464-ha parcel on the Puligny side planted to the equivalent of a 15,000 vines per hectare density; the wine sees no new wood and is aged in 1 and 2-year-old 350-liter barrels). Firm reduction. There is terrific underlying tension to the precise, powerful and strikingly textured flavors that conclude in an exceptionally compact finale that is firmly structured and built-to-age. This isn’t the densest Bâtard of the 2020 vintage, but the overall sense of harmony and balance is most impressive. If you can find it, don’t hesitate.