The 2019 Lucien Le Moine Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Les Folatières is a serious 100% Chardonnay from one of Puligny-Montrachet's most highly regarded Premier Cru vineyards. Les Folatières lies high on the slope above Clos de la Garenne, roughly midway between Meursault and the Montrachet Grand Crus, and is the largest Premier Cru climat in Puligny-Montrachet. Lucien Le Moine describes Folatières as naturally generous and ripe, often showing apricot and other stone-fruit characters when young, with its underlying minerality becoming increasingly apparent after extended élevage. This suits the distinctive philosophy of Mounir Saouma and Rotem Brakin at Lucien Le Moine, whose wines are produced in extremely small quantities and given unusually long, patient maturation before bottling.
The warm and successful 2019 Burgundy vintage gives this Folatières impressive richness without losing the mineral backbone expected from Puligny. Expect ripe pear, white peach, apricot and preserved citrus alongside white flowers, honey, beeswax, orange peel and subtle toasted notes. The palate is broad, concentrated and juicy, but the richness is balanced by a pronounced mineral character and a long, energetic finish. A contemporary description of this exact 2019 emphasises its mature white fruit, fresh honey, wax, flowers, orange peel and minerality, describing the palate as ample, mineral and intense. The wine was bottled by gravity without fining or filtration, consistent with Lucien Le Moine's minimal-intervention approach.
