Domaine Leflaive

An iconic estate of the Cote de Beaune

The wines of Domaine Leflaive

Located 11km South of the city of Beaune, not far from the Francois Carillon and Olivier Leflaive's estates, the Domaine Leflaive estate covers many appellations (Montrachet, Chevalier Montrachet Grand cru, Batard Montrachet Grand cru, Bienvenues Batard Montrachet Grand cru, Corton Charlemagne Grand cru, Chablis Vaudésir Grand cru, Chassagne Montrachet Premier cru, Puligny Montrachet Premiers crus, Pommard Premier cru, Volnay Premier cru, Meursault Premiers crus, Santenay, St Aubin, Pernand Vergelesses, Rully, Chablis villages…). Joseph Leflaive replanted all the vines of the vineyard after the Phylloxera crisis of 1920. The estate has been taken over by his 2 sons (Jo and Vincent), and then, by Anne Claude Leflaive (who died in 2015). Today, Brice de la Morandière is running Leflaive estate. The estate covers 24 hectares of vines that only produce Chardonnay. The vines are planted on clay-limestone soils on the low hillsides, and limestone on the top parts of the hills. Domaine Leflaive has been a certified biodynamic estate since 1997.

The Leflaive wines have a straight and strict character with very tight finishes. Most of the wines require at least 10 to 15 years of ageing to reach their peak. The Grands Crus vines were replanted between 1955 and 1980 (and 20% of them in 1989 for the Batard Montrachet vineyard). Montrachet, Chevalier Montrachet, Batard Montrachet and Bienvenues Batard Montrachet wines are among the greatest Burgundy white wines of the domaine Leflaive. They are great, powerful and fine wines, searched for by all wine enthusiasts around the globe, but they demand great patience as they can only be appreciated after 15 years of ageing. Only the very rare Montrachet, produced in small quantities, is matured for 12 months in 100% new barrels, then again for 6 months in one-year-old barrels. The other wines, according to their profile, go through new barrels (20 to 25%) for 12 months, and then 6 months in stainless steel tanks. Fining is kept as minimal as possible, and filtering, when necessary, is really light as well...