Wine Advisor
Henri Boillot, Batard Montrachet Grand Cru 2009
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2009 Batard-Montrachet comes across as big, rich, dense and quite powerful. There is plenty of intensity in the glass, but this remains a somewhat one-dimensional wine without a ton of complexity or pedigree. Anticipated maturity: 2015+. This is a beautiful set of wines from Henri Boillot’s negociant line. The entry-level wines in particular offer fabulous value. If anything, those are the most interesting wines here. When tasting Burgundy it is tempting to assume that premier crus are better than villages, and grand crus are better than the premiers, but that is often not the case, especially in a warm vintage where lesser sites ripened to a greate extent than is typically possible. Shrewd readers will find many jewels in this lineup, but they won’t be in the most likely places. In 2011 Boillot will have several new wines in his range, including Referts and Combettes. The 2009 villages were bottled in November, while the premier crus were bottled in January 2011. Importer: Various US importers, including Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769
Reviewed by: Antonio Galloni
The 2009 Batard-Montrachet comes across as big, rich, dense and quite powerful. There is plenty of intensity in the glass, but this remains a somewhat one-dimensional wine without a ton of complexity or pedigree. Anticipated maturity: 2015+. This is a beautiful set of wines from Henri Boillot’s negociant line. The entry-level wines in particular offer fabulous value. If anything, those are the most interesting wines here. When tasting Burgundy it is tempting to assume that premier crus are better than villages, and grand crus are better than the premiers, but that is often not the case, especially in a warm vintage where lesser sites ripened to a greate extent than is typically possible. Shrewd readers will find many jewels in this lineup, but they won’t be in the most likely places. In 2011 Boillot will have several new wines in his range, including Referts and Combettes. The 2009 villages were bottled in November, while the premier crus were bottled in January 2011. Importer: Various US importers, including Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769
About the Producer
Domaine Henri Boillot, located in the wine-producing village of Meursault in the Cote de Beaune, Burgundy, France, is a winery with a long history of quality. The vineyards of Château Boileau are located in the Côtes de Bern and Cote de Nuits appellations. The grapes for the white wines are mainly produced in the Grand Cru and Premier Cru of Prigny-Montrachet, where the soil is mainly brown limestone with occasional limestone clay soils, giving the white wines a complex and elegant taste. The grapes for the red wines come mainly from the first growths of the Volnay appellation, where the soils are mainly schist and limestone, giving the wines aromatic intensity and finesse. Château Boisrot follows traditional winemaking techniques. When the grapes reach optimum ripeness, they are picked by hand and transported to the winery. In the winery, the grapes are carefully selected and destemmed by the winery workers in order to select the best quality fruit. For the white wines, the grapes are pressed after breaking their skins and the must is then poured into fermenters where it is partially fermented and transferred to new French oak barrels for maturation. Unlike white wines, red wines are made by placing the broken skins of the grapes directly into the fermenters, allowing the skins to come into contact with the juice to extract the right amount of pigments, tannins and flavours. After fermentation, all red wines are matured in new French oak barrels, allowing oxygen to penetrate through the grain and soften the tannins, giving the wine a smooth texture and complex aromas. Currently, all of Château Boisrot's white wines are made from Chardonnay, a fresh and fruity wine that has been described as the 'star of white wines' in Burgundy. The red wines are all made from Pinot Noir, a rich and powerful wine that has received a great deal of praise from wine critics and wine reviewers.
