Albert Grivault Meursault Clos des Perrieres 1er Cru 2022 (1.5L)

96 DE

The best part of Meursault Perrieres is the “Clos des Perrieres” owned entirely by Domaine Grivault. They also own the largest overall portion of Meursault Perrieres – 2.54 hectares total. Albert Grivault’s grandson, Michel Bardet, and Michel’s daughter Claire manage the domaine today. After Albert passed, the wines were predominantly sold to negociants through métayage (lease) arrangements until Michel resumed domaine bottling in the 1970s and 1980s. A client from those métayage days, Lalou Bize-Leroy, continues to buy Perrieres from Grivault. The Grivault wines are regular medal winners and frequently earn the coveted “Tasteviné” designation from the Chevaliers du Tastevin. In a major tasting organized by the French wine magazine Bourgogne Aujourd'hui, a diverse panel of tasters ranked Clos des Perrieres as the finest 1er cru vineyard of all white Burgundies. Michel continues to lobby for the Clos des Perrieres to be reclassified as a Grand Cru. The family did extensive soil analysis to prove that the Clos is significantly different from the rest of the vineyard. The south-southwest exposition is the same as Montrachet and the walls reflect sunlight creating a warmer mesoclimate within the Clos.

Grivault’s monopole has produced a wine of superb concentration and depth, with rich aromas of ripe apple, peach and apricots touched with honey and a hint of reduction. The texture is lush and dense, with a finish that lingers sultry on the palate. Split between sand, silt and clay, the unique terroir of the clos gives grapes of extraordinary ripeness, pressed as whole clusters (without sulphur) and fermented in cask with minimal batonnage to give this nuanced, complex result.—Charles Curtis MW, Decanter