TN: Various Leroy wines

WINE TALK
#1

On May 11, 2010 our Los Angeles burgundy group, Burgonauts, held a tasting of Leroy reds and whites. Our host for the evening was Ron Movich. Consistent with our recent custom, the dinner was held at Melisse Restaurant in Santa Monica. It was also Ron’s birthday and chef Josiah Citrin seemed to pull out all of the stops. We had a couple of last minute cancellations, and so we ended up with 17 bottles of wine and 6 attendees. I did my best to soldier through and take good notes of the last flight of Leroy Nuits St. Georges from Vignerondes, but in retrospect I wish we had saved those bottles for a later date when we might have all appreciated them a little more.

Anyway, on to the wines…

1988 Krug Champagne
Light to medium gold color; bright citrus aromas with a hint of biscuit; full throttle rich citrus fruit with great acidity and lot of minerality and the slightest amount of toast that adds complexity rather than detracts from the flavors; wonderful long finish. This is my favorite Krug vintage. 96

Flight One—2000 Leroy whites (served single blind)

#1 [2000 Leroy Corton Charlemagne]
Very light yellow gold color; soft, sweet white flowers aromas with a hint of white honey; on the palate this is very elegant and has slightly sweet fruit but I thought this clearly the lightest weight wine of the three whites. Michael Zadikian thinks it is the Corton Charlie, but I don’t find sufficient mid-palate density here for this to be Corton. A couple of the others including Michael liked this more than I did. Best guess-Folatieres. 92?

#2 [2000 Leroy Meursault Narvaux]
Medium gold color; orange blossom aromas; rich, densely packed wine with a buttery texture and good acidity and modest minerality in the finish. My favorite wine of the flight. Best guess-Corton. 94

#3 [2000 Leroy Puligny Montrachet Folatieres]
Almost medium gold color; white flowers and citrus aromas; again slightly sweet fruit, but this is fat and intensely concentrated; long fruit and minerals finish. Best guess-Meursault Narvaux. 93

Flight Two- Leroy Latricieres

#4 [2001 Leroy Latricieres Chambertin]
Dark red color with some browning at the edge; sweet blue fruit aromas; soft blue fruit/cherry flavors with some earth tones, very nice wine but fairly mature; nice finish. Probably the 2000 given its maturity. (N.B. Much more mature/advanced than most 2001 grand crus I’ve had) 94

#5 [2000 Leroy Latricieres Chambertin]
Very deep red color with a differently colored red edge; blue fruit/red cherry fruit aromas with a hint of spice; on the palate, there was sweet plum and faint asian spice flavors – seems more like VR than Gevrey and surprising expression for a Leroy Gevrey wine; very long sweet fruit finish. This improved considerably as it stayed open and it was a full point better after an hour in the glass. 94

Flight Three –various Leroy grand crus

#6 [1996 Leroy Romanee St. Vivant]
Very dark violet color; typical Leroy blue fruit aromas with a hint of asian spice; very sweet, super-concentrated blueberry/red cherry flavors with some earth and subtle spice components; hard to identify this because of conflicting signals from the wine, but it was pretty amazing and one of my two favorite wines of the night. 96

#7 [1993 Leroy (SA) Bonnes Mares]
Medium red violet color with some red-brown edges; I seem to have gotten the tail end of the bottle and this seemed to have astonishingly advanced aromas and flavors for a [93] grand cru; Michael Zadikian gave me a taste from his glass (first glass poured) and it was clearly better—showed some cherry fruit and was less advanced, but still unusually tired for a Leroy. I strongly doubt this is a representative bottle. Rating based on the better glass. (N.B. While I realize now that this was a negoce wine, my strong suspicion is that this bottle had some extended storage at room temperature somewhere in its history) 91?

#8 [1991 Leroy Chambertin]
Super dark, saturated red-blue color; aromas of earth, spice and some faint blackcherry; intense red and black cherry flavors with earth tones and spice; very long finish with red cherries and distinct minerality. My favorite wine of the night by a narrow margin. 96

#9 [1990 Leroy Clos Vougeot]
Dark red-violet color; aromas of cherry (red) and some trademark Leroy blueberry; on the palate, rich, sweet, red and blue fruit flavors with some very fine grained tannins that detract slightly from the overall effect. Nice wine, but not as exciting as the best wines of this flight. 93

#10 [1990 Leroy Clos de la Roche]
Very dark color; aromas of blackcherry and spice; rich cherry/blackcherry earth flavors siwth some underlying spice. Nice long earth, blackcherry and spice finish. From a development perspective, this wine seemed to be the youngest wine of the flight (but once disclosed, this is an anomaly coming from the 1990 vintage.) 95

Flight Four – Leroy NSG Vignerondes

#11 [1995 Leroy NSG Vignerondes]
Dark red-black color; spicy blackfruit aromas; blackberry and spice flavors with a nice long finish and good acidity. Needs more time to develop a little complexity. 93

#12 [2001 Leroy NSG Vignerondes]
Very dark red color, quite saturated; strong torrefaction (mocha) aromas; some cherry and coffee/mocha flavors and a long finish somewhat saves this wine. 91

#13 [1998 Leroy NSG Vignerondes]
Dark blood red color; intense red cherry aromas – different from usual Leroy signature; intense slightly bitter cherry flavors; lots of depth here and a very long elegant cherry finish. 94

#14 [2002 Leroy NSG Vignerondes]
Dark red-violet color; black fruit aromas again with strong torrefaction notes; better fruit and balance on the palate than #12; not nearly as much mocha on the palate too; good mid-palate density; finish was soft, fruity and charming. 94

#15 [1993 Leroy NSG Vignerondes]
Very dark red-black color; red and blackfruit aromas with some spice; intense cherry, spice and notable tannins; the finish is powerful cherry fruit which is quite long and with some finish tannins to be resolved. 93

Dessert course

1969 Chateau Climens
Dark brownish/red color; brown sugar and odd component in the aromas; obviously old, toasty and tired on the palate; overly mature; I didn’t care for this wine. 85

#2

Great stuff Don.

#3

Excellent notes, Don, that almost put me in front of the glasses (I wish!). Thanks.

#4

breathtaking. I agree that 88 Krug is the best in the last 25 yrs–I like it better than 90 and 96.
alan

#5

Excellent notes Don! Thanks for sharing!

#6

Great notes Don. I have one bottle left of the 90 Clos Vougeot. Drink now or hold? Also, although you didn’t post on the 90 RSV, same question if you have had it recently.

#7

No clunkers in that group! I remember a 1990 Leroy Vignerondes I had several years ago that really wowed me, and really showed the Vosne influence.

#8

Roger:

If you’ve owned your Clos Vo from the outset and had it in ideal storage, then I’d hold on to it and hope that those fine tannins resolve. The fruit was in a very good place and there were no strong signs of maturity in the colors.

July of 2006 was the last time I had the 90 Leroy RSV. On that occassion I found the wine very disappointing vs. my expectations and prior ratings from Tanzer, Burghound etc. (I rated it 90). So I’m not sure what to tell you on that one. Somebody else has probably had it more recently.

#9

Thanks much Don. Yes, I’ve had the Clos Vougeot since release and at 55 degrees…so will hold a bit before drinking…

#10

I almost enjoy your tasting notes as much as I enjoy your wines and appreciate your posting the Leroy dinner. As I missed Ron’s dinner, what were your overall impressions of Leroy and did the bottles meet your initial expectations? For some reason I have always avoided Leroy and this opportunity would have given me a strong overview of the wines and their place among the important houses of Burgundy. My loss. Ron has always been a Leroy lover and would be interesting to have him chime in.

Enjoyed the RSV and Mugnier posts as well. Would like you to post the annual white burgundy notes from the Parker site, as I have limited access to them. They are an important tool in appreciating the challenging perion for our beloved white burgundies. Alan was kind enough to duplicate some of his previous wine notes from the Parker board and post them here with much appreciation from the community.

As all Don’s friends will attest, he is very careful about writing his notes during tastings. As the group’s events are usually in excess of four hours, it is not suprising that Don delays the flights as often as he does but he is beloved by his friends despite the deliberateness of his tasting. However the end result is always great notes.

#11

Don,

Great tasting and notes. Very similar to the one we did last autumn. Was the folatieres the d’auvenay version? Also I would say that the advanced showing of your 01 latricieres seems like an anomaly.

Dan

#12

Peter:

Thanks for your kind words (and patience with my well-known penchant to want to slow down the flights in order to get good notes done). I’ve still got two or three more sets of notes from the last six months to get completed and posted, including those from your dinner last week.

I will also get copies of the notes from the annual premox tastings posted although that may take some time given that I would need to combine the notes and reformat everything with the BB code.

Dan:

The Folatieres had a Leroy label and it looked like an estate label though I didn’t scrutinize it carefully. I do remember somebody commenting though that the whites all had estate labels.

#13

Don,

Thanks for sharing the terrific notes. A great evening.

I agree about the 1988 Krug, an epic vintage. I have never had a better Champagne. (Disclaimer – my experience is more limited than yours, and I have not tried the 1996 Krug or Salon yet).