The 2014 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a touch more gumption on the nose compared to the Criots-Batard-Montrachet with scents of citrus lemon, linden and cold granite, beautifully focused and very intense. The palate is long and tender in the mouth, certainly spicier and more extrovert than the Criot with a bravura finish that lingers long in the mouth. This is just a superb Batard-Montrachet from the domaine, one of the best of the vintage.

The 2009 Batard-Montrachet is a big wine. Today it shows its broad shoulders and structure, but also comes across as less obvious than the Criots, suggesting it has begun to shut down in bottle. There is plenty of finesse and personality in the glass, but this is a wine whose best days are still at least a few years away. Nevertheless, it is impossible to miss the wine’s exceptional harmony, laser-like focus and promise. Anticipated maturity: 2016+. Richard Fontaine began harvesting the 2009s on September 6. The malos were fairly quick and were completed by April 2010. The wines were racked in June and bottled in early September. Perhaps it is inevitable with a total of ten different Chassagne premier crus in the lineup, but in this vintage not all of the wines are markedly different from each other.Importers: Polaner Selections, Mt. Kisco, NY; tel. (914) 244-0404, Jeffrey Wellburn Selections, Van Nuys, CA; tel. (818) 780-4446