Domaine Henri Boillot - Puligny-Montrachet 1. Cru Les Combettes 2023

Henri Boillots senaste skott i bagageutrymmet på hans expanderande domaine. Les Combettes är ett berömt fält som bl.a. gränsar marken Les Perrières, vilket Henri Boillot också har skapat enastående resultat. Les Combettes är ett fylligt men ändå mycket elegant vin med en fin balans mellan syra och fatåldring och slutar med en karakteristisk mineralanslag.

The wine team - gassaswine.se

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Like many producers, Guillaume Boillot opted to acquire no new barrels in 2021, but he tells me that he acquired much less in 2022 too. The vintage, therefore, may prove to make something of a stylistic inflection point for this estate and maison, which appears to be shifting in the direction of a more chiseled, understated style than the rather nutty, toasty aesthetic for which it has long been known. Of course, the Henri Boillot brand has undergone transformations in the past too: the original Henri Boillot and his son Jean were especially celebrated red wine makers in Volnay; it was Jean's son, Henri, who launched a négociant label in 1995 and became celebrated for his white wines. Today, Guillaume Boillot has expanded the family's domaine holdings and concentrated his négociant operations, and he is now making as much a mark on the style of the Boillot whites as he already has on the style of the family's reds.

When their neighbor in Puligny-Montrachet contacted Guillaume Boillot and his wife Camille after the 2021 vintage, offering to sell them his vines in Les Enseignères and Corvée Aux Moines, the idea of a new label was born. The Boillots had long wanted to have a project of their own for themselves and their children, separate from the family Domaine/Maison Henri Boillot, and that finally came to pass with the 2022 vintage. The two domaine cuvées are complemented by a small négociant range. Guillaume continues to use a vertical press, something he began in 2017 at the family's winery, and he's using less new oak (what he does use is sourced from François Frères and Trémeaux), so the style is somewhat more discreet and understated. Given his long experience, it's hardly surprising that these first wines have turned out well, but it will be exciting to follow over the coming years.