Bursting with fresh cream, citrus blossom, and hints of challah, the wine leaps from the glass. Broad, lightly mealy, and sumptuously fresh, it glides across the palate, with flavors that mirror the aromatics. Everything is already in place, though it deserves a minimum of eight to ten years in the cellar and will easily reward longer aging. The oldest vines in this 0.7-hectare parcel, located on the northern end near Les Pucelles, were planted in 1976. In this vintage, there are just two Burgundian pièces produced.

The 2024 Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is exquisitely refined this year, exhibiting notes of vine blossom, sweet Asian pear and citrus oil, followed by a medium- to full-bodied, pure and precise palate. The Bâtard beats it for density and texture, but the Bienvenues is the more elegant. Benoît Riffault presides over this 15-hectare Pulingy-Montrachet reference point, and his 2024s have turned out very nicely. Opting not to chaptalize, with the exception of the Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune, the wines are pure and precise, with increasing texture and density as one ascends the appellation hierarchy. But what are the rudiments of winemaking at this address today? Hand-harvested fruit is pressed without crushing, the press cycle lasting around three and a half hours and performing "quite a few" rotations to crumble the marc. The must is sulfited at the end of the press and settled for 24 hours, but Riffault retains most of the lees, fermenting in wood with ambient yeasts. Larger formats, including foudres, now complement 228-liter Burgundian barrels. The wines are racked to tank in July-August before the new vintage, whereas the premiers and grands crus spend as much as six months on their lees before bottling. All of Sauzet's wines are bottled with high-quality unbleached natural cork.(WK)

The 2024 Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru has a clean and precise bouquet: just a light reduction, leesy scents percolating through with time, later touches of hazelnut. The palate is fresh on the entry with crisp acidity, quite bright, fine weight and sapidity cohering towards the finish. Focused with a dab of spice on the aftertaste, afford this three or four years in bottle if you can.(NM)