Visiting Domaine Leroy is one of life’s special treats, the wines just taste so good from barrel. We were greeted by Sales Director Frederic Roemer and spent a bit of time catching up on what has been happening around the Côte. Frederic is a great ambassador for the Domaine, especially so when he has a wine thief in hand and is about to head down into the cellars and provide you with a snapshot of the latest vintage from one of the world’s great producers.
At several of the producers we have tasted at over the past fortnight we have been able to have a look at the 2011’s. Where the wine has gone through malo, the reds are juts so sweet, fleshy and delicious. They are certainly some of the easiest wines I’ve ever had the pleasure to taste from cask and Leroy’s 11’s are no exception.
We warmed up with a few Maison Leroy red wines.
2000 Maison Leroy Bourgogne Rouge: Sweet, full and quite tasty. There are some nice savoury traits mixing it up with generous berry fruits and the whole package is a very good drink, punching above its level.
2009 Maison Leroy Chorey-Les-Beaune: Ever so slightly reduced but breathes to show a highly perfumed nose of purple flowers and red fruits. It is fresh and crunchy in the mouth with good energy and nice elegance.
1995 Maison Leroy Côte de Beaune Villages: Very earthy with plenty of mushroom, truffle and undergrowth things going on. There’s a hint of coffee and some pleasant berry fruit. It is drinking very well but builds substantially in the glass and one suspects it has a bit of development to go yet.
On to the Domaine wines.
2011 Domaine Leroy Nuits-St-Georges ‘Au Bas de Combe’: A combination of fruit and smoke greets the nose. The fruits are red with a jelly quality and are really luscious in the mouth. It is very long with round, sweet tannins.
2011 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée ‘Aux Genaivrières’ : Sweet, opulent, plush and damn sexy. There’s good volume and the fruits are laden with spice. It has decent structure and there’s plenty of mineral showing on the finish.
2011 Domaine Leroy Chambolle-Musigny ‘Les Fremières’: Really cool of personality with highly perfumed, crunchy fruits. It has great detail, is quite gorgeous with all of its up front sweet personality and nicely detailed on the finish.
2011 Domaine Leroy Pommard ‘Les Vignots’: For all its luscious fruit and tasty whips of liquorice, this is Pommard. It is chiselled, with Pommard firmness and authority. It is sexy Pommard, but still very much Pommard.
2011 Domaine Leroy Savigny-Les-Beaune ‘Les Narbantons’ 1er Cru: Fresh flowers, sweet earth and plums envelop the nostrils. It is expressive, juicy and luscious, a charming wine in every way with a good sense of proportion and balance.
2011 Domaine Leroy Volnay ‘Santenots du Milieu’ 1er Cru: Possesses a gorgeous perfume of sweet black cherries and violets. It is intense, loaded with cherry fruits in the mouth and has great purity. It is chiselled, taut and really quite classy.
2011 Domaine Leroy Nuits-St-Georges ‘Aux Vignerondes’ 1er Cru: Complex aromatics of ginger, iron, aniseed and red fruits tinged with other spices. Full and sweet with some Nuits muscle that takes hold of the finish and puts a structural hold on the flesh.
2011 Domaine Leroy Nuits-St-Georges ‘Aux Boudots’: 1er Cru: This thing is like liquid velvet. It is plush, layered, sensual and delicious. The fruits are creamy and rich, laden with spice and cut with minerals. It is certainly more Vosne in Personality than Nuits and is a tremendously hedonistic drink.
2011 Domaine Leroy Vosne-Romanée ‘Les Beaux Monts’ 1er Cru: A wine of balance and grace with real richness and texture but poise as well. It is sweet and floral with sappy intensity. Flavours coat the whole of the mouth and it is complex and highly perfumed leaving an enticing mouth aroma once swallowed.
2011 Domaine Leroy Chambolle-Musigny ‘Les Charmes’ 1er Cru: The fruit is highly fragrant with a waxy quality, showing notes of cherry, cherry stone, rose petals. It is loaded with intense red fruits in the mouth that are sharp and detailed yet there’s an overall plush feeling. A wine of tremendous clarity and focus and a strong long finish.
2011 Domaine Leroy Corton-Renards: Huge, earthy/rocky hit to the aroma. So much earth, so much detail, so much time needed but so much potential.
2011 Domaine Leroy Romanée St.-Vivant: Exquisite poise, balance and finesse. There’s a complex aroma of cherries, minerals, pomegranate and red currants. It is lacy and fine in the mouth with good intensity and terrific line. It builds in the mouth, flaying out on the finish with layers of fruit and mineral.
2011 Domaine Leroy Richebourg: Really quite open-knit and giving (relatively speaking) for Richebourg from cask. There are blackberry and blood plum fruits along with some smoked meats and a little grated ginger. This is powerful wine, with great richness and presence. It possesses extraordinary length.
2011 Domaine Leroy Musigny: This was quite simply one of the greatest wines I have tasted from barrel. It had a perfume that you could draw in for hours, full of fresh flowers and red and black fruits that have attained jut perfect ripeness. The wine shows no reduction, no hard edges just pure fruits and minerals. It has tremendous presence in the mouth but is as light as a feather. It has tannins that just occupy a space without imposing or intruding and the finish is precise, pure and airy. Exquisite!
2011 Domaine Leroy Clos Vougeot: This has Vougeot size and meatiness but is very pretty and almost feminine for the vineyard. The red and black fruits are sweet and lush and there’s a big lift of flora and sap to the aroma. It is intense and deep in the mouth with good muscle and authority and excellent length.
2011 Domaine Leroy Latricières-Chambertin: Vibrant, detailed and quite explosive. It is earthy with big structure that is amply fruited. Sweet plum and cherry fruits intensify at this wine’s heart and it builds to a big savoury crescendo to a point of great cut and precision.
2011 Domaine Leroy Chambertin: Bright, complex, fine and powerful. The fruits are full, rich and sappy with flavours like liqueur cherry and sweet Satsuma plum. It has plenty of grunt and is majestic in every sense the way it imposes its authority yet every component is in perfect balance and proportion.
A few palate cleansers from the cellars of Maison Leroy.
Maison Leroy Fleurs de Vignes Bourgogne Blanc: A new wine and a blend of 2009, 2010 and 2011 fruit which is quite tasty. It is full of orchard fruit aromas and flavours and is fresh and vibrant with a little chalkiness to the finish.
2009 Maison Leroy Meursault ‘Blagny’ 1er Cru: Rich, round and textured a wine of good volume with decent precision and cut. There are notes of hazelnuts and the ripe peach fruits are creamy and intense. It is fresh and zippy on the finish with nice mineral cut.
2008 Maison Leroy Puligny-Montrachet ‘Hameau de Blagny’ 1er Cru: Mild exotic notes on the nose of candied peel and spiced pear. In the mouth the fruit is rich and intense and cut by a sharp line of mineral acid. It is powerful and energetic with excellent length of flavour.
Cheers
Jeremy
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