The 2020 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes once again dares to challenge—and to my palate, surpass—Leflaive's Pucelles. Exhibiting aromas of peach, pear, nutmeg, pastry cream and white flowers, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and multidimensional, with racy acids, chalky structuring extract and a long, resonant finish. This old-vine parcel was reprieved from planned replanting several years ago, and today's farming choices mean that it's going strong.

I'm inclined to nominate the 2019 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes as Leflaive's finest premier cru this year. Wafting from the glass with aromas of pear, citrus oil, fresh peach, toasted nuts and smoke, it's full-bodied, rich and satiny, with an immensely concentrated and incisive profile. Taut and chiseled despite its mid-palate plenitude, it's built to cellar.

The 2018 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes possesses an additional level of concentration this year, and it marks a transition in the portfolio between the charming, giving lower appellations and the rather more serious top premiers and grands crus. Unfurling in the glass with notes of crisp yellow orchard fruit, orange oil, Meyer lemon, almond paste and citrus blossom, it's medium to full-bodied, fleshy and nicely concentrated, with fine mid-palate amplitude, lively acids and a saline finish.

The 2017 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Combettes is very promising, unwinding in the glass with notes of lemon, tangerine oil, dried white flowers, honeycomb and spices. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and concentrated, with broader shoulders than the Clavoillon, with tangy balancing acids, thrilling incipient complexity and a long, saline finish.

The 2016 Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Combettes is showing very well indeed from bottle, wafting from the glass with aromas of Anjou pear, toasted nut and white flowers, framed by some classy new oak. On the palate, the wine is medium to full-bodied, broad-shouldered and textural, with succulent acids, excellent depth at the core and a muscular, fleshy profile. This is shaping up to rank as one of Leflaive's best 2016s.