2020 Domaine Etienne Sauzet, Puligny-Montrachet “Les Referts” Premier Cru, White Burgundy, France.
Like all the Sauzet wines I’ve ever had, this beautiful 2020 Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts 1er Cru has intense mineral driven character and loads of youthful acidity, but still has an incredible, maybe vintage influenced, almost Grand Cru like concentration and depth, making for a top notch full bodied white Burgundy. Delicately pale straw/gold in the glass and with a subtle chalky nose, this wine takes a bit of time to unwind, but does so with feline muscle and underlying power, showing off lemon preserves, crisp apple, Bosc pear and zingy gooseberry fruits, along with clove spice, wet chalk, creme brulee, hazelnut and matchstick. A touch of lime, flint/gun metal, rosewater, saline and honey offer a nice contrast when the wine opens up completely. This is certainly one of the most luxurious of Sauzet Pulignys I’ve had, and that’s not a bad thing, it reminds me more of a Batard in terms of impact, while retaining acidity and tension, impressive stuff from start to finish, I really like what current keepers of this domaine are doing here. The Sauzet wines are all now biodynamic and sustainable practicing, with the domaine owned parcels being fully Ecocert certified, plus the winery makes note that they are green and all wines vegan friendly. The winery offers up quite the array of small Grand Cru and Premier Cru whites, which are sadly now only special occasion wines for me, but they do have a couple of values, including a Santenay and Saint-Romain. But compared to others in this quality level, Sauzet remains a solid value for the limited elite nature of the wines. The Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts cru just north of the village, about 13 acres in size total, is notable for its deeper calcareous clay marl and iron rich soils and it sits across the road from Meursault’s Charmes vineyard, which shares some of the same characteristics, though house styles make for very different wines of course.

The legendary Domaine Etienne Sauzet has a history that dates to the beginning of the 20th century, not too long for the region, when Etienne Sauzet inherited and bought several plots of vines in the famed village of Puligny-Montrachet, where this wine was born. These vines passed through the Sauzet family to Jeanine Boillot, Sauzet’s granddaughter. Jeanine and her husband, Gérard Boudot, managed the domaine, making many modernizations that improved the estate’s vinification process and introduced biodynamic farming, which has led to much improved vine health. Today the domaine is run their daughter Emilie and her husband, Benoît Riffault, who have continued making outstanding and electric Chardonnay here, these rarities, like this exceptional Puligny Les Referts, are among the most sought-after in all of Burgundy. My first experiences with the Sauzet wines were from the mid to late nineties and I was always blown away with the intensity and power those wine had, they remind me of what you see now in the wines of Jean-Marc Roulot and Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey with bracing minerality and energy. While Les Referts, which is lower on the slope and can be riper that higher sites it is not flabby here, though opulent in this vintage, which was aged 12 months in barrel on the lees, leading to a wine that is easier liven its youth. I have been lucky enough to have tried the legendary Le Montrachet in the past, but mostly I’ve sampled the Puligny-Montrachet offerings with Sauzet’s Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Hameau de Blagny being a constant favorite, along with the basic village Puligny and the always impressive duo of Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Folatières and Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Champ Gain bottlings. The US importer of Sauzet, Vineyard Brands has long been a source for great Burgundies, with the Haas family doing an amazing job of promoting excellent terroir driven and environment conscious producers, like Sauzet and they can be justifiably proud of their portfolio.
($189 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive

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