The 2009 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru is a brilliant wine that's evolving at a glacial pace. Unwinding in the glass with notes of citrus oil, crisp orchard fruit, fresh bread, struck match and beeswax, it's full-bodied, deep and satiny, with a concentrated and tightly wound core, racy girdling acids and chalky structuring extract. Long and resonant, this impeccably blanched wine is impressively youthful for the vintage, and while it's immensely compelling today, it will be even better with another decade on the clock. This is one of the wines of the vintage in the Côte de Beaune.

There is just one barrel of the 2009 Bâtard-Montrachet, which is a shame, as the wine is marvelous. This is a breathtaking, rich Bâtard endowed with layers of expressive fruit. Minerals and all sorts of crushed rocks frame the intensely pointed, chiseled finish. The Bâtard remains fresh, vibrant and weightless in a kaleidoscopic, dazzling style that only great white Burgundy is capable of delivering.

(50% new oak): Nut oil and a hint of stone fruits on the unforthcoming nose. Taut, dry and a bit reduced today, with concentrated flavors of stone fruits and toasty oak. Strong acidity gives definition to the peachy finishing fruit. This has barely evolved since I tasted it from barrel a year ago but is showing more fruit from the bottle.