2004 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge
Was $99.99 Now $59.99
"First things first – Domaine Leroy as a business is built on what is known as ‘Maison Leroy’ – which is the negociant business started by Francois Leroy in 1868. There’s said to be some 2.5 million bottles of burgundy in the cellar (not that I’ve tried counting them – but from a cursory glance over several visits now I’m confident that there is indeed a very great number indeed!) and Lalou makes available each year, a new collection of wines, that she personally selects – just as she personally selects the parcels of wine in the first place. (Madame Bize-Leroy selects finished wines based on blind tastings, then performs the élevage, literally raising, from malolactic fermentation to bottling in her cellars in Auxey-Duresses). Just like the Domaine wines (which first saw the light of day in the late ‘80s) the collection wines feature some of the great communes and vineyards of Burgundy; but are offered at far more attractive prices (in most cases!). They’re never going to be cheap – this is Leroy after all, but what they do offer is absolutely outstanding drinking of wines that are, above all else, ready to drink. The absence of the word ‘Domaine’ on the label of any French wine and the presence of the word ‘Negociants’ tells you whether or not its an Estate(Domaine) or Negociant (Maison).
"The 2004 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge being offered here should not be confused with the 2004 Domaine Leroy Bourgogne released last year. That wine (as reviewed by Allen Meadows aka Burghound) was a blend of Domaine Leroy vineyards that would normally be offered as wines in their own right - Pommard "Vignots", Savigny "Narbantons", Volnay "Santenots", and the Grand Crus Clos de Vougeot,Clos de la Roche and Corton-Renardes. Lalou Bize-Leroy, for reasons that really only she can explain, decided to declassify them into a blend. This wine, the 2004 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge comes from the same vintage, and has been blended and bottled by the same house – Leroy – but is NOT from Domaine Leroy’s own bio-dynamic vineyards. It is however one hell of a ’04 Burgundy. Put simply it is their ‘negociant’ Bourgogne from 04. Tasting this ’04 last year at the cellar it was clear that this was a juicy, fleshy, round earthy full-bodied Bourgogne rouge – and being young it offers a freshness that we hitherto had not been able to appreciate in Maison Leroy Bourgogne. Having only just been released, in January, the wine has yet to see any reviews. But they will come. I am confident of that. I have ordered it accordingly"
Importer, Patrick Walsh