A boisterous, white flower-scented offering, the 2001 Puligny-Montrachet Les Chalumeaux explodes on the palate with candied grapefruits, minerals, and crisp pears. Zesty and well-focused, this wine’s score was kept from being higher due to some hints of grapefruit peel-like bitterness in the finish. Projected maturity: now-2008.
To the affable Thierry Matrot, “the 2001 reds are a commercial vintage, for restaurants, they can be drunk easily over the next 2-3 years. It was a year where whatever you did, you didn’t want to extract too much.” Matrot, for the first time in the estate’s history, performed a green harvest in 2001, concentrating on the Pinot Noir and young Chardonnay vines, “yet, we only had yields 15-20% lower than in 2000 because the rains added another 20% of volume in the last 10 days before harvest. 2001 is the prototypical vigneron vintage. When the weather is bad we have to work harder, sort out more fruit, and make critical decisions concerning harvesting dates. In the end, our work paid off more in the whites than in the reds. C’est la vie!”
Importer: Vineyard Brands, Birmingham, AL; tel. (205) 980-8802; and Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines Company, New York, NY; tel. (212) 572-7725
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