Bursting with aromas of citrus oil, pear, freshly baked bread, spices and toasty new oak, the dramatic 2018 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru is full-bodied, rich and textural, with a layered core of ripe fruit, succulent acids and a long, vanillin-inflected finish.

The 2015 Batard Montrachet was showing just a touch of reduction on the nose that occluded some of its mineral tension. The palate is medium-bodied with a smooth texture, quite harmonious in the mouth with a pretty, green apple and spice-tinged finish. It just lacks that stoniness you seek in a Batard-Montrachet, because of the warm growing season.

The 2014 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru has an attractive nose in the making: crisp citrus fruit, limestone, apple blossom and a hint of Chinese white tea. I like the delineation here. The palate is crisp and taut. There is very good weight here, lively and tensile with a gorgeous orange peel-tinged finish that lingers long in the mouth. This is an impressive Batard-Montrachet.

The maiden 2013 Batard-Montrachet Grand Cru, of which there is just one barrel, comes from purchased must. It has a clean and precise bouquet, taciturn at first but opening with time in the glass. The palate is fresh on the entry with good depth and concentration, slightly viscous with a powerful, spicy finish that lingers nicely. This marks a confident debut and they’ll be twice as much to go round next year.

From a parcel in the northerly "neck" of this appellation – more specifically, opposite the Montrachet of the Marquis de Laguiche – the Remoissenet 2007 Batard-Montrachet is purchased as must. Decadent lily, musky narcissus, heliotrope, and white peach on the nose lead to a satin-textured, soothing plate laden with liquid floral perfume, ripe peach, and crushed chalk. But just as you start to lay your head back, this kicks up an invigorating, vibratory fruit and mineral interchange such as characterize so many of the best wines of its vintage and ends up managing to leave the palate both soothed and refreshed. Like many a 2007 of exalted classification, I cannot see any reason to defer the pleasure of this now, although I imagine it should hold well for at least 6-8 years. Interestingly, despite the success of Bienvenues-Batard in many hands this vintage, the Remoissenet team elected out of dissatisfaction to sell off the wine of that appellation grown by the same vigneron as this Batard, a wine that had excelled for them in 2005 and 2006. The well-known if not always entirely venerable house of Remoissenet began a new life in 2005 when it was purchased by investors and wine lovers Edward and Howard Milstein of New York; merchant Todd Halpern of Toronto; and (with a minority share) Louis Jadot. The new owners installed Jadot veteran Bernard Repot as manager and Claudie Jobard as winemaker to oversee less a renovation of the facilities than the establishment from scratch of a new winery. With one major exception (Le Montrachet) the revived Remoissenet has depended on establishing new sources of supply, a project that – along with marketing – is being spearheaded by long-time Wine Advocate associate Pierre-Antoine Rovani. The emphasis will be on contract fruit or must – although Remoissenet still owns acreage of Pinot Noir vines in and around Beaune – and then very selectively. Remoissenet's substantial share of Montrachet alone offers them a unique opportunity not only to bargain with growers, but to establish a high market profile, and the quality of 2007s here – following on the heels of an impressively rich if occasionally overly woody and ponderous collection of 2006s – confirms this as a negociant to be reckoned with. The barrels used here, incidentally, are now split between 350 liter capacity and standard 225 liter barriques.Importers include The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (707) 603-1460, Simon N Cellars, Charlottesville, VA; tel. (434) 977-4476, Bertin Henri Selections, Doral, FL; tel. (305) 392-6995.