2005 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles

Bouchard has now consolidated winemaking operations into a massive new facility between Beaune and Savigny, where all work can be done by gravity and the barrel cellar is a full ten meters underground.New director Stephane Follin-Arbelet noted that, by coincidence, Bouchard owns 130 hectares of vines and functions as a negociant with another 130 hectares; similarly, there are 130 hectares of red vines and 130 of white.According to winemaker Philippe Prost, 2005 was the first vintage since 1989 in which Bouchard picked the chardonnay before the pinot noir."The chardonnay was already thoroughly ripe and balanced, but the pinot still needed more phenolic maturity," he explained."A lot of people picked in the wrong order and made fat whites and acid reds."Still, he noted, Bouchard's starting date of September 21 for the chardonnay was not particularly early by the standards of the vintage.There wasn't a lot of juice in the grapes in 2005, Prost noted."The intense flavors are due to a high skin-to-juice ratio."