Producer Profile 3: Olivier Leflaive — Medium to Full-Bodied White Wines
Wines in this style tend to be:
- Made from more neutral grape varieties such as Chardonnay (although there are many exceptions to this, as you can see above)
- From grapes harvested at medium to high levels of must weight
- Mainly dry or off-dry
Wines in this style tend to have:
- Moderate to high levels of alcohol
- Pronounced richness and complexity
- Used production methods that emphasize weight and richness
- Shorter settling times leading to musts with higher turbidity
- Fermentations at warmer temperatures to emphasize more complex aromas
- Fermentations carried out by ambient yeasts
- Barrel fermentations and Barrel Ageing
- Malolactic fermentation
- May go to bottle with light or no fining and/or filtration
Wines in this style tend to avoid:
- Low levels of sugar ripeness in the grapes
- Grapes with high levels of Botrytis infection, that may mask varietal character
- Production techniques that favour a lighter-bodied style, such as
- Fermentations on highly clarified musts at cooler temperatures
- Fermentations only in tank