The Leflaive Clavoillon has improved so much with the adoption of biodynamique principals in the vineyard, and with each passing year I am amazed at how much more profound this premier cru is from ten or fifteen years ago. The 2009 is an absolutely beautiful bottle of Puligny in the making, as it soars from the glass in a very complex mélange of apples, lemon chiffon, oranges, striking complex minerality, citrus blossoms and a very judicious base of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and very, very pure on the attack, with a fine core, great cut and grip on the backend and a very, very long and perfectly balanced finish. The beautiful fruit of 2009 is almost silky in texture on the attack here, and the elegance carries through all the way to the finish, which is utterly refined and very snappy. A beautiful bottle.

A deliciously fruity wine, its bright apricot, pineapple and peach flavors open and generous. Of course, there is a more serious core of structure, lemon zest and dryness to promise aging. At the end, though, fruit and a light toastiness give immediate pleasure.

Leflaive farms a large parcel at Clavoillon, their 11.84 acres accounting for the lions share of this premier cru in the center of Puligny’s hill. The 2009 is cool, fragrant and rich, an evocation of limestone caught, for now, in the vanilla and spice scents of the oak in which it aged. That extract from the oak emphasizes the harder edges of the wine’s minerality, needing age to mellow. The freshness of the wine will sustain it as the flavors grow more complex.

This is notably riper than the Blagny and the nose plays right on the edge of a certain exoticism as the mostly yellow orchard fruit aromas hint at the presence of mango and papaya. The very rich, round and mouth coating flavors exude plenty of dry extract that buffers the moderately firm acid spine on the lightly mineral-driven and persistent finish. Overall this is really quite pretty and about the only nit is the presence of the barest hint of finishing bitterness that my score assumes will dissipate with a few years of bottle age.

Tasted out of stainless-steel tank at the Domaine. An understated bouquet, very tightly would at the moment with touches of green apple (granny Smith), pear and limestone. The palate has a certain femininity about it, very good acidity, a slight yeastiness on the entry fanning out economically in the mouth. This Clavoillon is refined and elegant.