FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 88
Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru 2018
Burgundy's most famous white-wine family owns just 800 square meters of the world's most famous white-wine vineyard, enough for a single small barrel a year, and in the generous summer of 2018 that barrel earned a 97.
- Maker
- Domaine Leflaive
- By price in wine
- 4 of 100
Create a free account to see every recorded price and every grade.
Create a free account- Producer
- Domaine Leflaive, Puligny-Montrachet, Burgundy
- Appellation
- Montrachet Grand Cru (Le Montrachet), Cote de Beaune
- Grape
- Chardonnay
- Parcel
- 0.0821 hectares, about 800 square meters, on the Chassagne-Montrachet side
- Acquired
- 1991, from the Fleurot family
- Production
- One small barrel a year, about 250 bottles on average
- 2018 harvest
- Began August 26, 2018
- Critic scores
- Wine Advocate 97; Burghound 94-97 from barrel
- Farming
- Biodynamic; the domaine began converting in 1997
- Director at the time
- Brice de la Morandiere
Eight hundred square meters of Montrachet
Le Montrachet is a grand cru of 7.99 hectares, split almost evenly between the villages of Puligny-Montrachet and Chassagne-Montrachet. Many consider it the source of the greatest dry white wine in the world, made entirely from Chardonnay. Its history goes back to the Middle Ages: in 1252 two men of Puligny gave wines from 'Mont Rachaz' to the Abbey of Maizieres. It was recognized as a grand cru appellation in 1937. As of 2007 it had 18 owners and 26 producers.
Domaine Leflaive's share is tiny: 0.0821 hectares, about 800 square meters. The plot lies at the Chassagne end of the vineyard, just north of the holding of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, just above the road at the bottom of the slope, with its rows planted north to south. A 2012 review describes it as worked only by horse.
The land has a traceable past. It was once part of about a hectare of Montrachet owned by Charles Drapier, a Puligny grower and merchant. At an auction in November 1918 his Chassagne-side holdings were divided among three buyers: Jules Lafon, founder of the Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Leon Roizot, and Auguste Fleurot, who took the northern section. Domaine Leflaive bought its plot from the Fleurot family in 1991.
The Leflaive family
The Leflaive family's roots in Puligny go back to Claude Leflaive in 1717, but the modern domaine was built by Joseph Leflaive (1870-1953), a naval engineer who bought 25 hectares in 1905, during the phylloxera crisis. After his death his sons Vincent and Jo ran the domaine. Its Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles was one of the ten wines tasted at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, finishing eighth.
In 1990 Vincent's daughter Anne-Claude Leflaive and her cousin Olivier took charge, and from 1994 she ran the domaine alone. In 1997 she decided to convert it to biodynamic farming, and she became one of the method's best-known champions. A leading wine magazine named her the world's top white winemaker in 2006, and in 2014 the Institute of Masters of Wine named her its Winemakers' Winemaker. She died of cancer on April 5, 2015.
The domaine is now directed by Brice de la Morandiere; one account dates his leadership to 2013. At the start of 2017 he hired Pierre Vincent to run the winemaking, and Vincent's first task was to tighten the logistics of the cellar, including ending the practice of moving unfinished wine between sites during aging.
2018: a big, early, generous year
After a wet winter and spring filled the water table, Burgundy had a hot, nearly rainless summer in 2018, one of the three hottest growing seasons since the Second World War by one critic's count. Growers expected little juice. Instead, the white grapes held far more than anyone predicted, and the harder problem was finding enough tanks and barrels.
Domaine Leflaive started picking on August 26, 2018, and finished on September 1, by one visitor's account. That year it had a new press, which Pierre Vincent said let the team be even more reactive. Reported yields differ: one visitor was told 2018 was the domaine's most generous crop since 1982, averaging 50 hectoliters per hectare; a critic was told the domaine held its yields to 45 hectoliters per hectare, and he singled out its 2018s as superlative.
Since 2014 the domaine has used technical corks and has cut the sulfur added at bottling from 32 milligrams per liter to between 20 and 25, with less fining.
What the critics found
Tasted from barrel, the 2018 Montrachet was scored 94-97 by Burghound in June 2020. Once bottled, it earned 97 points from William Kelley of the Wine Advocate in January 2021, who described aromas of pear, Meyer lemon, honeycomb, dried white flowers, toasted nuts and smoke framed by a deft touch of new oak, and called the wine full-bodied, rich and layered, with lively acids and an immensely persistent finish. He suggested drinking it between 2028 and 2055.
Because the domaine makes only about one small barrel of Montrachet a year, roughly 250 bottles, few people ever taste it. A tasting held in March 2026 with the domaine's director compared three older vintages, 1999, 2015 and 2017; the 2018 was not among them.
One of the rarest dry whites
With about 250 bottles a year, Leflaive's Montrachet is among the scarcest white wines from any great estate. By comparison, the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti makes about 3,000 bottles a year from its 0.67 hectares of the same vineyard.
In October 2026 a U.S. merchant listed a bottle of the 2018 at $19,995, and a price-comparison service showed an average asking price of $20,010 per 750 ml bottle. Both are asking prices, not sales.
The numbers
- Montrachet appellation
- 7.99 ha, split between Puligny and Chassagne
- Leflaive parcel
- 0.0821 ha (about 800 square meters)
- Bottles per year
- About 250, one small barrel
- Blend
- 100% Chardonnay
- 2018 harvest
- August 26 to September 1, 2018
- Wine Advocate (William Kelley)
- 97, January 2021
- Burghound (barrel)
- 94-97, June 2020
Timeline
Wines from 'Mont Rachaz' are given to the Abbey of Maizieres, an early record of the vineyard.
Joseph Leflaive buys 25 hectares in Puligny during the phylloxera crisis.
Charles Drapier's Chassagne-side Montrachet is divided at auction; Auguste Fleurot takes the northern section.
Montrachet becomes a grand cru appellation.
Joseph Leflaive dies; his sons Vincent and Jo take over.
Leflaive's Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles places eighth at the Judgment of Paris.
Anne-Claude Leflaive and her cousin Olivier take charge of the domaine.
Domaine Leflaive buys its 0.0821-hectare Montrachet parcel from the Fleurot family.
Anne-Claude Leflaive decides to convert the domaine to biodynamic farming.
Anne-Claude Leflaive dies.
Pierre Vincent arrives to run the winemaking.
The domaine begins its 2018 harvest, using a new press.
Burghound scores the 2018 Montrachet 94-97 from barrel.
The Wine Advocate scores the bottled 2018 Montrachet 97.
A U.S. merchant lists a bottle of the 2018 at $19,995.
The world in 2018
SpaceX flies its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time.
The Winter Olympics open in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Kim Jong Un becomes the first North Korean leader to cross into South Korea since 1953.
France wins the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
NASA's InSight probe lands on Mars.
Yellow vest protests spread across France.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $19,995 | Asking price, not a saleRetail asking price per 750 ml bottle at a U.S. merchant. Not a sale. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Domaine Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru 2018 is number 4 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (88 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Domaine Leflaive's Montrachet parcel covers about 800 square meters, roughly one percent of the whole vineyard.
- The domaine makes about one small barrel of Montrachet a year, roughly 250 bottles for the whole world.
- Its plot was carved out of a Montrachet holding divided among three buyers at auction in November 1918.
- Leflaive's Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles was one of the wines tasted at the 1976 Judgment of Paris.
- The domaine's parcel sits next to the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti's piece of Montrachet.
- Leflaive began picking its 2018s on August 26, while it was still summer.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026