Domaine Anne-Claude Leflaive (Burgundy)

Anne-Claude Leflaive in the cellar

Puligny-Montrachet (see map), Burgundy
Anne-Claude Leflaive is a terroir-passionated vintner whose roots in the family winery in Puligny-Montrachet dates back from at least 1717.The family estate was founded by her grandfather Joseph Leflaive. A father of five, he bought 25 hectares of vineyards as the prices had dived following the phylloxera debacle. Anne-Claude Leflaive began to take the reins of the estate in 1990 with her cousin Olivier after the older generation retired. Olivier Leflaive left 4 years later to work full-time on his négoce activity and Anne-Claude continued the transition of the 25-hectare surface from conventional farming to reasonned, then organic, and finally biodynamic farming, the whole property being farmed that way in 1997. She joined the Nicolas-Joly-funded Renaissance-des-Appellations group to share experiences about this particularly-demanding vineyard management. Her estate has been know for the use of a strikingly-modern technology to spray certain biodynamic preparations : she used an agricultural copter to mist-spray her vineyard, allthewhile avoiding having the ground-surface life disturbed by the heavy tractor. Her passion for true wines led her to fund a wine school (Ecole du Vin et des Terroirs) with the participation of several other outstanding vignerons that addresses many topics not taught elsewhere, or not taught that way. Check regularly the program for the scheduled courses.

Domaine Leflaive : the courtyard Anne-Claude Leflaive hadn't preconceived ideas when she decided to change the vineyard management toward a chemical-free farming, she yearned for a healthy vineyard rooted in a living soil and this led her to meet other people who had been experimenting in this direction, people like Claude Bourguignon. Like other growers before her, she conducted side by side basic-organic farming experiments and biodynamic ones, and the trials were repeatedly in favor of the latter, including for most of the (blind) tasting of the wines. So after an initial trial on 5% of her surface (one hectare split on Houlières, les Grands Champs, 1er Cru Clavoillon and Grand-Cru Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet) she decided to switch progressively all the vineyards toward this viticulture management. The vat roomOur visit was a rehearsal for a later, longer visit and we met only shortly Anne-Claude Leflaive who was on her way to an appointment. We were received first by régisseur Eric Remy who presented the estate, and later by Antoine Lepetit (to taste the wines), who now works at Domaine Leflaive after having discovered biodynamie at Domaine Zind-Humbrecht when he quit his consulting position for industrial groups in Paris.
The estate is planted with Chardonnay only, Anne-Claude Leflaive is a white-wine vintner. All the vineyards are on Puligny-Montrachet with the exception of the one at Blagny, where a Meursault 1er Cru "Sous le Dos d'Âne" is grown. Before, this particular plot was planted with Pinot Noir and it was uprooted and replanted with Chardonnay in 2002. The estate produces 30 000 bottles in Villages Appellations, then come the 1er Crus wines, the biggest being le Clavoillon (4,8 hectares or 90% of the climat), les Combettes (Meursault - 3 plots), les Folatières, les Pucelles (2 plots). Then come the Grands Crus : Bienvenues-Bâtard Montrachet, Chevalier-Montrachet (a higher, white-clays terroir) and Montrachet (a very small plot - 8,5 ares or 1/1,5 cask). Antoine Lepetit, sampling wine from a vatAs said above, Anne-Claude Leflaive and her former regisseur Pierre Moret were looking for ways to get the chemicals-saturated soils alive again, this was at the end of the 1980s'. That's when she met François Boucher. At the time, she had found in the Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet a small plot doomed to be uprooted, and François Boucher suggested "why not try biodynamie here ?". Thats as it, in 1990-1991, they conducted her first biodynamic trials on this vineyard, the first year 1,5 hectare was converted and the second year 3 hectares. In 1997 the whole surface was worked this way, and the doomed-to-be-uprooted vineyard is still there and healthy (it is about 40 years old now)... She joined the Biodyvin certification group (click on "les Adherents" on the left to see the names of the other members). Of course, the vinification is made with wild yeasts, everything is hand-harvested, plus a sorting stage on tables with, depending of the year ans condition of the grapes, 6 persons on both sides of the table to check for rotten and unripe grapes. At the end of the vat stage, the grapes go into a pneumatic press, then racking of the must and decanting stage in a vat at 10-12°C. The racking-of-the-must stage takes 18-24 hours but they keep fine lees and the juice goes then into the casks, within a maximum of 36 hours after the press stage. The fermentation will start by itself in the casks with the indigenous yeasts and all the wines are vinified this way here. The only thing that makes them differ is the terroir and the percentage of new casks. On the whole, generic Burgundy gets 10% of new casks, Villages 15%, 1er Crus 20% and Grands Crus 25%.
__Domaine Leflaive, Bourgogne 2007.From a vat. Freshness. Flowers, fruit aromas. Antoine Lepetit says that he loves this vintage. 2007 was a difficult year though, april had been quite hot, the foliage grew too much, with a high disease-pressure on the vines later on. But then there was a northern wind late august, and september was on the whole a beautiful month. For the anectode, here is the Onivins Pdf document (in French) about the weather conditions in the wine regions in 2007.
__Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet Villages 2007. From a vat again. Floral, vividness. All the wines get their first year in casks and the second year in these vats.8 to 15 casks fit in such a vat. These stainless-steel vats were made in the early 1970s' and they are part of the style of Domaine Leflaive's wines.
__Domaine Leflaive, 1er Cru le Clavoillon 2007. A bottom-of-the-slope 1er Cru. We notice that this cellar is not underground, and Antoine Lepetit says that it is the norm in the region because the water tables are not deep and because the vignerons used to bottle their wines very early befor the summer. In Puligny-Monrachet you will alway see the cellars on the street level and the living quarters upstairs. the wine : green reflections. Glides beautifully on the sides of the mouth. Very nice structure, says B. Lots of minerality too. Neat attack. This vineyard plot was Pierre Moret last job here.
__Domaine Leflaive, les Pucelles 2007. Right near Clavoillon, same level on the slope and same soil depth. Antoine Lepetit says while tasting the wine that the wines really show themselves truly after they have been racked from the casks and put in these steel vats. 2007, he says, is a year with a lot of purity, where the terroirs express themselves without being hampered by side factors. Nose : wheat, honey, cherry plum B. adds. He says that les Pucelles is often narrow on the first mouth, with a minerality that makes salivate in the length, with a delicate and cristalline side.
__Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet 2007. These wines have been racked before the harvest and poured into the steel vats, he says, so that the casks could receive the 2008 juices. The wine : very well balanced. Very masculine, he says. B. feels lemon notes, lis, a hint of hazelnut.
Domaine Leflaive, Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru 2007. On the upper slope, with a meager soil. Very delicate, a minerality from an upper slope. Nice length in the mouth. Less masculine than the Bâtard. Praline, , citrus peel. Speaking of all these 2007 wines, Antoine Lepetit says that a Swiss importer that they met considers they're his favorite vintage. The 2006 are pretty well praised but for some demanding amateur, they are too easy to appreciate.
Read the informative and insightful report by Jamie Goode of Wineanorak on Anne-Claude Leflaive and her wines.Domaine LeflaivePlace des Marronniers21190 Puligny-MontrachetPhone +33 3 80 21 30 13Fax +33 3 80 21 39 57sce-domaine-leflaive [at] wanadoo [dot] frwww.leflaive.fr