The 2009 Puligny-Montrachet Champ Gain blossoms on the palate with expressive, round fruit. The Champ Gains possesses an attractive combination of verve and ripe fruit, especially on the finish, where the warmth of the vintage is most apparent. This is an attractive, harmonious wine at the villages level. Sweet floral notes linger on the soft, caressing finish. Anticipated maturity: 2012+. Jacques Lardiere and Frederic Barnier showed me a wide range of 2009s during my visit in late June, 2011. Many of the jewels among the 2009s are hidden in the villages level wines, which I highly encourage readers to check out. I also tasted a selection of 2008s. The 2008s are quite fat for the year. Yields were lower than in 2009. Lardiere made the decision to age the wines longer on their lees to give them more richness, which he felt was lacking because of the inconsistent, high acid vintage. As a result, these are fairly big 2008s. Importer: Kobrand Corp., Purchase, NY; tel. (914) 253-7756

A 2006 Puligny-Montrachet Champ-Gain represents Gagey family holdings, a portion of which is typically declassified to ennoble Jadot’s village Puligny. Piquant nuttiness and bitter-sweet floral notes in the nose usher in a wafting, elegant, silken-textured palate. The delicacy and relatively low acidity of this wine leave it prey to faint finishing woodiness and alcoholic heat. Still, the overall impression here is lovely, and while it seems destined for early enjoyment, a year in bottle may well bring greater harmony. The impressive collection of Jadot 2006s were slow both in their alcoholic fermentation and their malo-lactic evolution, which director Jacques Lardiere considered all to the good when it came to imposing structure and building complexity in wines of such ripeness and relatively high alcohol. In any case, Jadot whites seldom complete their malo-lactic transformation, and if one seeks a vintage to demonstrate the virtues of that approach, surely 2006 is the poster child. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that there are no values left in white Burgundy today has clearly not given Jadot’s wide range the attention it deserves. (These wines were assembled from barrel for my tasting and/or tasted from a range of individual barrels. I have generally made note of those wines not owned by Jadot and its associates by at least indicating whether grapes or juice were purchased.) Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel.(212) 490 9300

A 2006 Puligny-Montrachet Champ-Gain represents Gagey family holdings, a portion of which is typically declassified to ennoble Jadot’s village Puligny. Piquant nuttiness and bitter-sweet floral notes in the nose usher in a wafting, elegant, silken-textured palate. The delicacy and relatively low acidity of this wine leave it prey to faint finishing woodiness and alcoholic heat. Still, the overall impression here is lovely, and while it seems destined for early enjoyment, a year in bottle may well bring greater harmony. The impressive collection of Jadot 2006s were slow both in their alcoholic fermentation and their malo-lactic evolution, which director Jacques Lardiere considered all to the good when it came to imposing structure and building complexity in wines of such ripeness and relatively high alcohol. In any case, Jadot whites seldom complete their malo-lactic transformation, and if one seeks a vintage to demonstrate the virtues of that approach, surely 2006 is the poster child. Furthermore, anyone who thinks that there are no values left in white Burgundy today has clearly not given Jadot’s wide range the attention it deserves. (These wines were assembled from barrel for my tasting and/or tasted from a range of individual barrels. I have generally made note of those wines not owned by Jadot and its associates by at least indicating whether grapes or juice were purchased.)Importer: Kobrand, Inc., New York, NY; tel.(212) 490 9300