Recently, I read a blog on one of the local sites characterizing the wines of Bouchard, Pere et fils as stodgy and ordinary. Now normally, I might have agreed with this view, but I'd been tasting and, increasingly, buying the wines from this large and venerable domaine for a number of years, and while I may not have what I respectfully refer to as the Clive Coates palate...

I do appreciate the continued emphasis on acidity, clarity, and structure in many of the wines there.
But there began to be something else about the wines, a richness, a power, a generosity, that had begun to creep into the style of the house, and this newfound depth, owing largely to the transformative work of Bernard Hervet, was serving to place the crystalline structure of the wines here into a whole new perspective. Suddenly we could drink the wines, rather than just observe them.

Hervet has since departed with the acquisition of the property by the Champagne house Joseph Henriot now complete, but in the capable hands of Philippe Prost, the resuscitation continues. Harvests take place a bit later than before, enhancing phenolic ripeness and perfume. More new wood is being used, with up to 100% for the Grands Crus, and the wines seem cleaner, more patrician than ever. Taste a 2003 Corton Charlemagne, or a Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte, and I defy even the most jaded taster to assess these wines as less than stunning efforts, capable of long aging and immense enjoyment.