2019 Domaine Bernard Moreau et Fils Chassagne-Montrachet, Cote de Beaune, France (750ml)

The 2019 Chassagne-Montrachet Village wafts from the glass with notes of orange oil, white flowers, Anjou pear, mint and nutmeg. Medium to full-bodied, satiny and layered, it's bright and lively, with fine concentration, tangy acids and a nicely defined finish. Between the spring frost and a protracted flowering, Alex Moreau reported that yields at this address were appreciably diminished, ranging from a decidedly low 25 hectoliters per hectare to a moderate 40. Harvest began here on September 7, and alcohols top out at 13.4%. Fermentations were a little fast for Alex's liking, but this is once again a superb range, meriting a place in any well-stocked Burgundy cellar. Serious and concentrated, these 2019s evoke the domaine's 2015s, but if anything they're even better balanced. An unusually hurried schedule, compressed by France's second COVID-19 lockdown, precluded revisiting the bottled 2018s, an oversight that will be remedied later this year—from my own cellar, if necessary. In any case, as ever, any wine bearing the Moreau label comes warmly recommended.