Puligny-Montrachet, Les Combettes, 1er Cru, 2021
Very serious. Power, exceptional definition of flavours, a salty core, but with ripe flesh above. There’s so much here. Brimming with citrus and salt vitality. This will need time but there’s already fabulous Puligny minerality woven throughout it. Sophisticated power and muscle. Haunting length. Spellbinding. Sauzet's example of Combettes is one of the great Premiers Crus of Puligny, up there with Caillerets and Leflaive's Pucelles. From two adjacent plots, one of 30-year-old vines, the other 85 years old, neighbouring Lafon’s vines in Meursault Charmes. A supremely well-exposed vineyard, mid-slope like Champs Canet but with a little less limestone and more clay.
critic reviews
The 2021 Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes 1er Cru has a bit of reduction on the nose, though unlike Jean-Marc Boillot's Les Combettes here it complements the wine and does not occlude its mineralité. The palate is fresh on the entry with crisp tangerine and green apple notes, a dab of lemongrass adding a bit of spice to proceedings. It fans out nicely on the finish, suggesting that this should give 12 to 15 years' drinking pleasure. Tasted blind at the Burgfest tasting.
The 2021 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes is another one of the high points chez Sauzet this year, offering up aromas of confit citrus, beeswax, crisp stone fruit, white flowers and hazelnuts. Medium to full-bodied, ample and fleshy, it's taut and structured, with good depth at the core and chalky dry extract.