Critic ratings
vinous
2015
Rating:
94
–94
(13.3% alcohol without chaptalization): Medium yellow, a bit paler than the Clos de la Mouchère. Complex but reticent aromas of stone and soft citrus fruits, menthol and minerals. Plush and thick but sappy, even penetrating; not at all a fat or heavy style of Bâtard, thanks no doubt to early picking. Boasts excellent definition to its stone fruit and saline mineral flavors. Finishes tactile, powerful and very long, slightly aggressive but not hot. This wine needs--and should repay--several years of bottle aging.
vinous
2015
Rating:
93
–95
(50% new oak): Deep, musky aromas of very ripe stone fruits and clove. Silky-sweet in the mouth, showing sexy leesy notes of hazelnut and smoke and excellent salty extract but less obvious oakiness than the Criots and the Bienvenue. This powerful yet suave Batard finishes smooth and vibrant, with a repeating note of clove and terrific saline persistence.
vinous
2017
Rating:
93
–96
Bright yellow. Lively and decidedly less exotic on the nose than the Criots-Bâtard, offering aromas of yellow fruits, flowers, hazelnut and saline minerality. Dense, tactile and deep, this sappy, mineral-driven wine already displays grand cru class. Really inundates the palate with fruits, flowers and minerals on the savory, inexorable back end.
robert_parker
2021
Rating:
92
–94
Aromas of clear honey, sweet orchard fruit and white flowers preface Boillot's 2021 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru, a full-bodied, ample and satiny wine with racy acids and a broad, expansive profile, concluding with a long, saline finish.
robert_parker
2019
Rating:
94
–94
The 2019 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is showing well, opening in the glass to reveal aromas of pear, clear honey, buttered toast, mandarin oil and white flowers. Full-bodied, layered and concentrated, it's rich but tightly wound, with a deep core of fruit, bright acids and a long, penetrating finish.
robert_parker
2018
Rating:
95
–95
The 2018 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is showing brilliantly, unwinding in the glass with aromas of crisp orchard fruit, honeycomb, white flowers, orange oil and wheat toast. On the palate, it's full-bodied, ample and muscular, with lively acids and an impressively structured, introverted profile for the vintage, concluding with a long, saline finish.
robert_parker
2015
Rating:
94
–94
The 2015 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru from Henri Boillot is a dramatic, powerful rendition of the 2015 vintage, offering up notes of ripe peach, tangerine oil, toasted nuts, iodine and wheat toast. On the palate, the wine is glossy, textural and full-bodied, with almost chewy extract and considerable amplitude, kept in check by succulent acids. Gourmand and generous, this is a classic Bâtard-Montrachet.
robert_parker
2014
Rating:
95
–95
Tasted blind at the annual Burgfest tasting, the 2014 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru was the most subtle of eight wines tasted from the vineyard, but it exudes mineralité, tension and class with gorgeous oyster shell scents percolating through with time. The palate is very detailed with a fine bead of acidity, beautifully balanced with a saline tang that builds throughout and flourishes toward the finish. This is an outstanding Bâtard-Montrachet from Henri Boillot, one that comes highly recommended.
robert_parker
2011
Rating:
85
–85
Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Bâtard-Montrachet 2011 from Henri Boillot was the one disappointment from what was otherwise a strong set of wines from this vintage. It does not have the complexity of Olivier Leflaive’s Bâtard with light citrus and orange-blossom aromas that seem a little static. The palate has a reductive note on the entry. The acidity is nicely judged, but there is too much SO2 masking the finish.
robert_parker
2011
Rating:
94
–96
Although obviously still an infant, the 2011 Batard- Montrachet is a wine of tremendous potential. There is gorgeous depth and richness in the fruit, but the minerality and sheer tension of the wine are only apparent on the finish. When I taste the Batard I think of a wine where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The 2011 is harmonious and flat-out gorgeous. Anticipated maturity: 2014+.
(Not yet released)
Henri Boillot recently finished his move to a new modern cellar in Champ Lins, one of the industrial sections of Meursault. Boillot describes his 2011s as having a bit more richness and better balance of fruit and acidity than the 2010s. Based on what I tasted, it’s hard to argue that point. Boillot seems to be one case where the 2011s have the potential to be better across the board than the 2010s. As is often the case here, the village wines are particularly strong.
Importers: Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769, Cynthia Hurley French Wines, West Newton, MA Tel 617-965-4251 www.cynthiahurley.com and Chelsea Ventures, LLC, 1601 South Canal St, Chicago, IL 60616 tel. 847-920-5052
robert_parker
2010
Rating:
94
–94
The 2010 Batard-Montrachet is pure class through and through. A silky frame supports layers of expressive, perfumed fruit as this polished wine continues to open in the glass. Floral notes flow through to the long, nuanced finish. The Batard is quite subtle for the vintage, but its pure refinement is impossible to miss. Anticipated maturity: 2014+.
(Not yet released)
Henri Boillot recently finished his move to a new modern cellar in Champ Lins, one of the industrial sections of Meursault. Boillot describes his 2011s as having a bit more richness and better balance of fruit and acidity than the 2010s. Based on what I tasted, it’s hard to argue that point. Boillot seems to be one case where the 2011s have the potential to be better across the board than the 2010s. As is often the case here, the village wines are particularly strong.
Importers: Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769, Cynthia Hurley French Wines, West Newton, MA Tel 617-965-4251 www.cynthiahurley.com and Chelsea Ventures, LLC, 1601 South Canal St, Chicago, IL 60616 tel. 847-920-5052
robert_parker
2009
Rating:
92
–92
The 2009 Batard-Montrachet comes across as big, rich, dense and quite powerful. There is plenty of intensity in the glass, but this remains a somewhat one-dimensional wine without a ton of complexity or pedigree. Anticipated maturity: 2015+.
This is a beautiful set of wines from Henri Boillot’s negociant line. The entry-level wines in particular offer fabulous value. If anything, those are the most interesting wines here. When tasting Burgundy it is tempting to assume that premier crus are better than villages, and grand crus are better than the premiers, but that is often not the case, especially in a warm vintage where lesser sites ripened to a greate extent than is typically possible. Shrewd readers will find many jewels in this lineup, but they won’t be in the most likely places. In 2011 Boillot will have several new wines in his range, including Referts and Combettes. The 2009 villages were bottled in November, while the premier crus were bottled in January 2011.
Importer: Various US importers, including Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769
robert_parker
2007
Rating:
94
–94
The 2007 Batard-Montrachet – from holdings that straddle the Puligny-Chassagne line – is once again challenged by placing it in a line-up after Boillot's Criots and Bienvenues, but the wine chooses to go its own very fruit-centric, generous, and in the final analysis no less vintage-typical way. Peach, musk melon, and papaya in the nose segue into a sumptuously rich, ripely-fruited palate that incorporates marzipan and honey, yet also a fresh cut of citrus. This would finish more lusciously were it not for a sheer concentration – encompassing citrus zest, peach kernel, vanilla bean, and alkaline minerality – of palate staining bitterness. It will probably retain stamina for a decade.
As explained in my report in issue 180, Henri Boillot’s domaine is now legally known by his name rather than that of his father Jean, and is thus eponymous with his negociant business. Furthermore, given what seems to be a stylistic convergence as well as given Boillot's own preference in presenting his wines this year, I have folded together the coverage of these two entities, noting in the text of my notes those wines that come from the domaine. Boillot did not begin picking until the second week in September, harvesting fruit that he reported required only occasional, minimal chaptalization and had higher tartaric than malic acid, in contrast to their proportions in 2008. Since Boillot managed to achieve his ideals of “precision and minerality” even in the ripe 2006 vintage, it will come as no surprise that they have been brilliantly achieved in 2007. A preference for volume of healthy lees rather than their stirring and (as mentioned in my report on his 2006s) the utilization of 350-liter barrels rather than barriques are surely among the factors that permit these wines to marry richness with refreshment and clarity. On the other hand, even the wines of lesser appellation that receive less barrel exposure are still given extended time on their fine lees in tank before bottling, Boillot being a believer that "time is of the essence" to great white Burgundy, not in the proverbial sense but rather in that of taking enough if it.
Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491 4724
robert_parker
2017
Rating:
94
–96
From vines that straddle the border of Chassagne and Puligny and which run from the top to the bottom of the appellation, the 2017 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is superb, wafting from the glass with notes of ripe citrus, beeswax, dried flowers, hazelnut paste and fresh pear. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied deep and concentrated, with a broad-shouldered, layered core that's liberally endowed with chewy extract, yet a sense of elegance and purity that marks this out as one of the finest renditions of Bâtard-Montrachet to be found along the Côte.
robert_parker
2009
Rating:
92
–92
The 2009 Batard-Montrachet comes across as big, rich, dense and quite powerful. There is plenty of intensity in the glass, but this remains a somewhat one-dimensional wine without a ton of complexity or pedigree. Anticipated maturity: 2015+.
This is a beautiful set of wines from Henri Boillot’s negociant line. The entry-level wines in particular offer fabulous value. If anything, those are the most interesting wines here. When tasting Burgundy it is tempting to assume that premier crus are better than villages, and grand crus are better than the premiers, but that is often not the case, especially in a warm vintage where lesser sites ripened to a greate extent than is typically possible. Shrewd readers will find many jewels in this lineup, but they won’t be in the most likely places. In 2011 Boillot will have several new wines in his range, including Referts and Combettes. The 2009 villages were bottled in November, while the premier crus were bottled in January 2011.
Importer: Various US importers, including Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769
robert_parker
2010
Rating:
94
–94
The 2010 Batard-Montrachet is pure class through and through. A silky frame supports layers of expressive, perfumed fruit as this polished wine continues to open in the glass. Floral notes flow through to the long, nuanced finish. The Batard is quite subtle for the vintage, but its pure refinement is impossible to miss. Anticipated maturity: 2014+.
(Not yet released)
Henri Boillot recently finished his move to a new modern cellar in Champ Lins, one of the industrial sections of Meursault. Boillot describes his 2011s as having a bit more richness and better balance of fruit and acidity than the 2010s. Based on what I tasted, it’s hard to argue that point. Boillot seems to be one case where the 2011s have the potential to be better across the board than the 2010s. As is often the case here, the village wines are particularly strong.
Importers: Massanois Imports, Washington, DC; tel. (202) 470-6769, Cynthia Hurley French Wines, West Newton, MA Tel 617-965-4251 www.cynthiahurley.com and Chelsea Ventures, LLC, 1601 South Canal St, Chicago, IL 60616 tel. 847-920-5052
robert_parker
2011
Rating:
85
–85
Tasted blind at the Burgundy 2011 horizontal tasting in Beaune. The Bâtard-Montrachet 2011 from Henri Boillot was the one disappointment from what was otherwise a strong set of wines from this vintage. It does not have the complexity of Olivier Leflaive’s Bâtard with light citrus and orange-blossom aromas that seem a little static. The palate has a reductive note on the entry. The acidity is nicely judged, but there is too much SO2 masking the finish.
robert_parker
2013
Rating:
89
–91
The 2013 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a terse, light estuarine-scented bouquet that takes time to unfold in the glass. The palate is medium-bodied with a saline entry, quite pointed in the mouth, but it needs a little more tension and detail on the slightly anonymous finish (compared to the Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet for example.) Let's see if this gains something in bottle.
robert_parker
2006
Rating:
92
–93
Coming from its Criots and Bienvenues, Boillot's 2006 Batard-Montrachet had two very difficult acts to follow. The dominant themes here are ripe peaches, brown spices, and nut oils, imbedded in a palpably dense and relatively firm-feeling palate, and clinging tenaciously with a bitter-sweet peach, peach kernel, and pungent spice. While impressive, this does not display the uncanny balance or flavor interplay of its grand cru siblings, and leaves behind a bit of heat. But there may well be more here than met my nose and palate on the occasion in question. And I can certainly imagine this being worth at least 6-8 years of cellaring.
Henri Boillot's ambitious and burgeoning negociant arm is made up in large part of many small bottling lots, representing remarkably many of the Cote d-Or's most prestigious crus. -Precision and minerality- are words he offers to explain his intentions even in a vintage as ripe as 2006, and for the most part he walks the accompanying walk, with wines (largely assembled in tank) that showed more generously and expressively than did Boillot's estate wines on the same day.
Importer: The Sorting Table, Napa, CA; tel. (415) 491 4724
