The 2009 Maltroie was the most minerally premier cru I had tasted to this point in the cellars at Fontaine-Gagnard, and the wine offers up a beautifully vibrant and stony bouquet of apple, lemon zest, tangerine, complex minerality, a gentle touch of leesiness and a lovely base of new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and racy, with a rock solid core, excellent focus and grip and a very long, poised and snappy finish. While this is accessible today, the 2009 Maltroie is the first premier cru in the range that I would be inclined to give a couple of years of bottle age to and let its secondary layers of complexity come into the fold. A beautiful wine.

Very mild reduction diminishes only slightly the expressiveness of the ripe yellow orchard fruit aromas that are nuanced by a pretty note of minerality that can also be found on the pure and silky middle weight flavors that possess excellent detail and even better intensity, all wrapped in a slightly exotic finish. While this solidly complex effort is certainly very attractive at present, indeed it could easily be enjoyed now, I would advise drinking it early as it may turn heavy with more than a few years of bottle age.