Cool Wine Place #3: The Village of Puligny Montrachet, France
Larry Leigon's Secret Life of Wine Newsletter #211
FUN AND LIFELONG LEARNING ABOUT WINE AND STUFF
Learning about wine is often made way more complicated and arcane than it needs to be. Everything is taught in pieces but no one relates the pieces to each other or a through line—
It’s like writing a dictionary and then throwing all the pages on the floor then putting them back together in the order you pick them up.
The pieces are right, but not helpful.
So let’s take the embarrassment and intimidation out of wine, and open up the wonder and the magic of connecting with each other. It’s great to hear how other people react and how what they think compares to what you think. That’s the fun of it. We all learn that way.
Building the Wine Master Blueprint©
(The Wine Master Blueprint©, white wine step 2)
OK. so last issue we started to build the blueprint for making you a wine master.
First, we started with Chablis, France because it is the pure marker for Chardonnay and all other white wines.
Next we look at variations of that pure chardonnay can become the other great Chardonnays in the world when a winemaker begins their magic.
Cool Place #3 Puligny Montrachet, France
The three things to know about Puligny:
The vineyards around this tiny village (400 residents) include two vineyards that make what is usually regarded as the best white wine in the world, Le Montrachet and Montrachet.
The most famous people around here are the LeFlaive family. Their original vineyards go back to 1717. Today there are two branches of the LeFlaive family in Puligny—one a grower/winery and the other a negociant . Generally that means the Joseph Le Flaive label means they grow the grapes and Olivier Le Flaive means he buys wine, blends it and then sells it.
https://www.leflaive.fr/en_US/ Its a beautiful website! Check it out.
What to look for when you’re tasting:
We’re going to Puligny after Chablis because it illustrates an absolutely classic example of different ways to handle Chardonnay and white wines in general that you can apply to any white wine in the world. For starters everything about Puligny is more subtle that it’s American counterparts. Look for:
The oak vanilla taste of barrel aging and sometimes barrel fermenting. The taste of wood in the better Puligny’s is amazingly integrated with the texture and aromas of the wine. These are usually the definition of “tightly knit”.
The texture (mouth feel) of these wines are amazing, Silky, smooth and subtle. No place in the world other than Burgundy consistently gets this texture. If you’re into American Chardonnays, this will taste weak and make no sense to you.
The dirt. Puligny is great at developing unique aromas that come from the vineyard. Subtle aromas you have to pay attention to in order to notice them. Once you do, you will never forget that smell. God bless dirt.
What to see and do
From Trip Advisor:
Check out must-see sights and activities:
Olivier Leflaive, Grappe De Raisin De Puligny-montrachet, Wine Tastings, Mountain Bike Tours. For personalized recommendations, try our AI trip-planning product.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/SmartDeals-g672979-Puligny_Montrachet_Beaune_Cote_d_Or_Bourgogne_Franche_Comte-Hotel-Deals.html
Amazing bike trails, hotels, wine tours and food of the region. Check out the Olivier Le Flaive Hotel and the Grapppe De Raison de Puligny Montrachet for a completely different taste from grapes.
The best white wine vineyards in the world. The lines and colors indicate different owners.
HOW TO HAVE MORE FUN AND LEARN COOL THINGS ABOUT WINE
A step by step guide to life long learning about Wine
©Larry Leigon, September 2024, all rights reserved
Please send your comments or questions to me at larry@larryleigon.com. The more I hear from you, the better I can write about what you really want to know.
Puligny Montrachet, Burgundy, France
WHAT I’M DOING AND WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU
I spent 50 years in the wine business. Seems like too long doesn’t it?
But I have learned a couple of things about wine along the way. I’d like you to know as much as you have interest in knowing.
NEW GUIDE
I am writing a new guide on how to learn about wine your whole life. Hence the title for this issue.
Not just a class or a tasting. You’ll get all the information but this time, I’ve put the dictionary pages back in the order the way they started out.
This issue is a small piece of a part of it. This format doesn’t allow for more detail. But it’s something for you to react to.
This coming guide aims to be useful not just for the weekend, but for the rsst of your life. As you grow in experience and knowledge, it can grow with you. Along the way, I will point out choices you have about learning wine that you probably never knew you had and open up experiences you would have missed out on.
Places to go. Sights to see. Wines to try out. People to know. Recipes from wine country.
I’ll be giving you recommendations from 50 years of experience for what to do next, whatever level of tasting you are now. And you will help guide me by your comments and questions, beginning with this issue.
YOUTUBE
Before it’s a book, the guide will be short videos on YouTube where you can comment and ask questions and guide me to what you want to know. If there is interest, we can start a Facebook group with both free and paid sessions to start to talk with each other right now about what you most want to talk about.
Until the English got hold of it back in the 18th century, wine was fun. That would be for most of world history. Maybe it should be again.
If you can taste food you can taste wine. And if you’re already good at both, let’s make you better and see if you can help others to get better too.
Let’s take the embarrassment and intimidation out of wine, and open up the wonder and the magic of connecting with each other. It’s great to hear how other people react and how what they think compares to what you think.
Larry Leigon
Brilliantly said… “It’s like writing a dictionary and then throwing all the pages on the floor then putting them back together in the order you pick them up”