2015 Louis Latour Puligny Montrachet 750 ml

This Latour is Why We Love White Burgundy

This is for the lover of classic white Burgundy, and the curious Chardonnay fans who have heard others wax poetic about Cote d’Or whites and wondered what they were missing.

The 2015 Louis Latour Puligny-Montrachet is what we talk about when we talk about classic white Burgundy. It is mineral and nutty, ripe yet crisp: an archetype of Chardonnay from what may be the world’s most prized white wine village. James Suckling was impressed to the tune of a 92-point score, and we were positively seduced by it when we tasted it with vigneron Louis-Fabrice Latour in San Francisco earlier this year. For Chardonnay lovers who have not yet experienced Puligny, this is the perfect place to start. For those enamored with white Burgundy, this one will remind you why you fell for it in the first place.

Stephen Tanzer of Vinous wrote that 2015 “yielded Burgundy’s fleshiest, most opulent white wines since at least 2009,” which means that this gem from one of the most respected names on the Cote d’Or is drinking beautifully in its youth.

Since we are accustomed to seeing 11th-generation vigneron Louis-Fabrice Latour in Beaune, generously pouring us vintage after vintage of his iconic Burgundies, we were thrilled to finally be able to host him in San Francisco. Tasting through Latour’s stellar 2015 whites in the City by the Bay, though, still transported us back to the Côte d’Or  — to the many times Louis-Fabrice walked us through his family’s vines in Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet, and the legendary hamlet of Puligny-Montrachet.

Puligny-Montrachet’s star has risen and risen in the century since the people of Puligny decided to rename their town to reflect the world-renowned white wines produced there. The hyphenated name now serves as shorthand for village wines that boast the intricate charms of the best of the Côte d’Or without the daunting three- and sometimes four-digit prices commanded by other Premier and Grand Cru producers. It is difficult to think of a white wine appellation in France, or elsewhere in the world, whose name alone inspires such an expectation of quality.  

The 2015 Latour Puligny bears that burden with aplomb. Latour winemaker Jean-Charles Thomas reported that fruit quality was so good in 2015, sorting tables were not needed, and that once a spell of blistering heat broke at the end of August, conditions were idyllic. Stephen Tanzer of Vinous classified the white Burgundies that resulted as “clean, pure and rich.” We could not have summed up the 2015 Latour Puligny any better.

This is pure Puligny, from an iconic producer and a top vintage. We can’t imagine a cellar that wouldn’t be more complete and more pleasing stocked with a few bottles of this stellar white. Do not miss out.

Jonathan Cristaldi

Editor-in-Chief, Wine Access