Cart 0 items: $0.00

SHIPPING INCLUDED(on case quantities, Continental USA).

Elden Selections

TOP
Type
White Wine

Potinet Ampeau Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru 'Champs Gains' 2015

Appellation
Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru
Region
Côte de Beaune
Vintage
2015
Out Of Stock
Add To Cart
$139.00
 
CONTACT US TO RESERVE NEXT VINTAGE
Overview

If you want to see what our palate is like for the great White Burgundy of the 'golden triangle' of Puligny, Chassagne and Meursault, this Puligny 1er Cru 'Champs-Gains'  from Potinet-Ampeau is a paradigm. Here the subtlest of all Burgundy white minerality lets the freshness sing.  Pure, floral, ripe and refined.  But under all is a powerful structure that starts out discreetly, but rises insistently and carries the whole package through the mid-palate on to an impressively long finish.  Classic Puligny. 

Producer

The Domaine Potinet-Ampeau is situated in the village of Monthelie in the southern part of the Cote de Beaune, between Meursault and Volnay. The domain is one of very few remaining who have a policy of holding vintages in their own cellars to allow them to age correctly before release. For this reason we can offer you not only older vintages, but older vintages that have been perfectly stored.

Vintage

BURGUNDY 2015 VINTAGE

We have resisted writing the Elden Selections Burgundy 2015 harvest report until now (April 2017), mainly to let the hub-bub and hyperbole settle down, but more importantly to be sure that the claims we are about to make are justified. We’ve seen too many vintages vaunted as ‘the year of the century’, when really the wines simply showed well young. Burgundy 2015 is a truly extraordinary vintage. The reds are rich, ripe, balanced and powerful. And from all over the region they express chiseled, focused terroir. Despite their youthful seductive charm, these are wines to keep, with serious ripe tannins already melted into explosive fruit.

Comparisons have been drawn with the 2005 vintage, though there is more concentration in the 2015s than in the 2005s. Like a caterpillar changing to a butterfly, great vintages often go to sleep in the bottle. And 2005 is just reawakening from several ‘dumb’ years. It’s been worth the wait. The wines have metamorphosed. 2015 might be similar. And if the comparison is apt, investors in 2015 should appreciate the youthful beauty of this great vintage now, but be prepared to be patient.

That said, 2005 was no ‘year of the century’. But 2015 is also being compared to 1990, which arguably was. And I hear that Michel Lafarge, one of Burgundy’s respected elders, says he remembers drinking 1929s, and he draws parallels. The whites are a bit more uneven, and early reports claimed that the vintage lacks acidity. Certainly, these are wines which are riper and more luxuriant than the exquisite purity of 2014 white Burgundy. But there is no risk that well-made wines will be overly ample or flabby. The best wines will have benefited from the barrel. Comparisons are drawn to 1985, one of the great vintages in white.

The heterogeneity in 2015 white Burgundy is due to the tricky growing season, which was mostly hot and dry, but which cooled significantly in September. Was it better to pick early or late? And did the wine deserve more or less barrel aging? These are questions which will be answered producer-by-producer, bottle-by-bottle over the coming years. But what is clear is that they 2015s are concentrated, fresh and structured.

We believe that to understand a vintage, it is important to look at the weather. Because Burgundy is a single-grape wine, the only thing that changes from year to year in a producer’s vineyard is the weather. So we look for patterns and try to analyze what makes a good year, a bad year…and in this case, an excellent year.

The winter of 2014-2015 was uneventful. It was never really cold, but when it was, it was dry. Mostly it was mild, so we had more rain than snow. We would need the replenished water reserves in the long hot summer ahead.

April was warm and dry, and bud-burst took place early. Mornings in May were sunny, afternoons cloudy, and overall cool and dry. The vines began to flower in the last week of the month, so we knew we were looking at a harvest in early to mid-September.

In early July, the mood started to mount towards hopeful. The weather had been steady, dry and cool. But slowly during the month, temperatures began to rise, and in the last week of July hit 30C. The flowering had been successful, so there was a good crop on the vines.

Day after day of warm dry conditions brought drought considerations into play. But no hail for once! August continued in this way. Hot and dry. A little welcome rain later in the month, but just enough to keep the stress levels down. But no storms or hail. And extremely healthy fruit on the vine. No rot, no mildew, no odium. The mood was optimistic, even euphoric.

Harvest ostensibly started the first Monday of September. And days later the weather broke, and a cool period set in for ideal harvest conditions, stabilizing acidity levels. It stayed this way until September 12th when the first serious rain in two months fell in the southern part of the region. Harvest was disrupted for a few days, but the 19th, it was pretty much all over.

 
Appellation

PULIGNY-MONTRACHET

COTE DE BEAUNE

Many think of Puligny-Montrachet, along with Chassagne-Montrachet, as the most perfect expression of the Chardonnay grape. As always of course, it depends on who makes the wine. But one thing is certain, the premiers crus do have pedigree, with most of them bordering the north side of the grands crus. The village wines are produced mainly in the flat-lands to the west of the village itself. Plots which adjoin the hamlet of Blagny produce a red wine, but in tiny quantities.

Produced only in the commune of Puligny-Montrachet, appellation Puligny-Montrachet includes 17 premiers crus. The commune of Puligny-Montrachet also produces 4 grands crus

Wine

Red wine is fast disappearing from Puligny-Montrachet due to the world-class reputation of and subsequent demand for the whites. A well-made one should be brilliant greeny gold color, becoming more intense with age. The bouquet brings together hedge-row blossoms, grapey fruit, almonds and hazelnut, lemon-grass and green apple. Milky and smoky mineral aromas are common, as is honey. Balance and concentration are the hallmarks of a good Puligny.

Terroirs

Brown limestone soils and soils where limestone alternates with marl and limey-clay are prevalent. The soils are deep in some places, and in others, the rock is exposed at the surface. Where there are clay alluvia, these are coarser higher up the slopes and finer at the base. Expositions run east and south-east at altitudes of 230-320 meters.

Color

Almost all whites - Chardonnay

Reds - Pinot Noir

Production surface area

1 hectare (ha) = 2.4 acres

Whites : 206.72 ha (including 96.58 ha Premier Cru)

Reds : 1.26 ha (including 0.27 ha Premier Cru)

Food

Puligny-Montrachet should be concentrated and well-bred. Balance, aromatic complexity, and purity call out for delicate but rich food. Poultry in sauce or sauteed veal with mushrooms. They go well with foie gras, lobster, crayfish, and grilled fish. On the cheese-board, it works with creamy goat cheeses or soft-centered cheeses like Brie de Meaux.

Appellations

Red wines from the defined area of this appellation may use the alternative appellation 'Cote de Beaune Village'

The following climats are classified as grands crus:

Chevalier-Montrachet

Batard-Montrachet

Bienvenues-Batard-Montrachet

Criot-Batard-Montrachet

On the label, the appellations 'Puligny-Montrachet' and 'Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru' may be followed by the name of a specific vineyard, known as a climat.

The following climats are classified as premier cru:

Champ

Clavaillon

Clos de la Garenne

Clos de la Mouchère

Hameau de Blagny

La Garenne

La Truffière

Le Cailleret

Les Chalumaux

Les Combettes

Les Demoiselles

Les Folatières

Les Perrières

Les Pucelles

Les Referts

Sous le Puits

The following climats are village wines from a single vineyard, known as a lieu-dit:

Au Paupillot

Brelance

Champ Croyon

Corvée des Vignes

Derrière la Velle

La Rousselle

La Rue aux Vaches

Le Trézin

Le Village

Les Aubues

Les Boudrières

Les Charmes

Les Enseignères

Les Grands Champs

Les Houlières

Les Levrons

Les Meix

Les Nosroyes

Les Petites Nosroyes

Les Petits Grands Champs

Les Reuchaux

Les Tremblots

Meix Pelletier

Noyer Bret

Rue Rousseau

Voitte

Add To Cart
$139.00
 
CONTACT US TO RESERVE NEXT VINTAGE
Continue Shopping
Sign up for inside offers, Burgundy News, and Special Promotions!