A Monopole in Puligny

The word monopole does not come up often in Puligny-Montrachet. The village is divided into slivers; a grower with a full hectare of one climat is doing well. Ownership here is a matter of rows, not walls.

Clos de la Mouchère is the exception that gets pointed at. It is a walled parcel sitting inside the premier cru Les Perrières, and the Boillot family holds all of it. The label says so plainly — MONOPOLE, printed under the name, in a village where almost nobody has the right to print it.

The house style is the second thing to know before opening one. Henri Boillot works his whites reductively, limiting oxygen through the elevage. Wines made that way are shut when young by design; they are built to arrive later rather than to charm early. And among the 2022 whites from this address, the Mouchère is generally described as the most closed of the range.

Which was known in advance. The bottle was opened anyway.

In the Glass

The colour is pale, clear lemon — an unremarkable young Burgundy white to look at, three years from the harvest.

The nose comes out narrow. Citrus confit and white flowers, a suggestion rather than a statement, and beneath them a wet-stone note holding the bottom. Fruit is standing well back. Nothing about the aromatics is trying to please.

The palate has volume, and the volume does not arrive as fruit. Minerals first, then white pepper and something mentholated and cool, and behind that a concentrated weight that stays. There is a hardness through the middle that belongs to youth and reads exactly as that. The finish is long and mineral-driven.

What the bottle offers at this stage is the shape of the vineyard — structure, salinity, length — and very little of the flesh that will eventually sit on it. The flowers and the riper register are still years out.

A Note on 2022

The vintage was hot in Burgundy, hot enough that the expectation was low acidity and broad, early-drinking whites. The Côte de Beaune whites did not follow that script. Acidity held better than the summer suggested, yields were generous, and 2022 has settled into a slightly contradictory reputation: a warm year that kept its balance.

This bottle is consistent with that. The freshness is not in question. The patience is.

Opened too early, knowingly. It will be opened too early again.