Puligny Montrachet 1. Cru - Clavoillons 2018

Vinous - 90-92

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet Clavoillons 1er Cru comes from 0.50 hectares of 60-year-old vines and sees around 35% new oak. It has a little more detail and stoniness on the nose compared directly with the Champ Gains. The palate is very well balanced, with orange pith, lime, a pinch of white pepper and flinty notes toward the sustained finish. It might need a little more depth considering the climat in question, although it does reveal a very pleasant fiery quality on the aftertaste. 

Wine Advocate - 91

Produced from the domaine's oldest vines, the 2018 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Clavoillons represents a step up in concentration and completeness, offering up aromas of smoky pear and citrus fruit mingled with beeswax and warm spices, followed by a medium to full-bodied, deep and attractively textural palate. Since 2003, Alain Chavy has presided over some 10 hectares of vines, principally in Puligny-Montrachet and, today, entirely planted to Chardonnay. Farming is conventional, but Chavy has foresworn herbicides since 2009. He harvests early, vinifying in barrels from Damy and Chassin (including some larger-format barrels) and maturing the wines in wood for the better part of a year. Before the harvest, they're racked to tank, fined in November, filtered in January and bottled in February with around 40 parts per million free sulfur dioxide—using Diam for the lower appellations and corks from Trescases for the higher appellations. Easygoing and expressive, these are open, approachable wines with plenty of commercial appeal, though one might wish for more concentration and structure in bottlings from such celebrated appellations. (WK)