TN: Leroy, Ramonet, Krug, Boisson-Vadot

Domaine Leroy tasting for our monthly lunch group to end 2020 on a spectacularly high note. We are fortunate to live in sunny Arizona, where the weather is perfect in winter for sitting outside — and we have all taken ample Covid precautions.

1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil
Dark color but still lively with intense toffee and some brioche. Drink sooner than later.

2010 Boisson-Vadot Meursault Geneverieres
Classic Meursault showing tremendous balance and grace. Lemon oil, mineral, quite clean and balanced. None of the reductive qualities in some of this producers wines. Spot on, at peak, and perfect timing and occasion to open my last bottle of this special wine. Perfect with the chilled seafood tower.

1999 Ramonet Montrachet in magnum
As close to perfection as any white Burgundy can be. The power was breathtaking, yet it maintained its light, dreamy feel in the mouth. A huge amount of dry extract and a finish that goes on and on and on. I have been privileged to have this wine before, but this was the best example I have ever tasted, the magnum format serving it well. Textbook example of power without weight. I don’t score on points but everyone at the table who did said 99 or 100.

2002 Ramonet Montrachet
Considerably riper than the 99. Where the 99 starts lightly and builds to a tremendous finish, the 02 is big from start to finish, albeit a bit broader and more viscous. If the 99 is power without weight, the 02 is power with weight. In any other tasting this would be a champion, but the 99 showed more precision and delineation.

2002 Leroy Gevrey-Chambertin Combottes
Served blind vs 05, we unanimously identified the vintage correctly. There is a sauvages and stem note, and a cloudiness, often seem in 02. This has the sexier aroma, but the palate is rougher than 05 today.

2005 Leroy Gevrey-Chambertin Combottes
Fruit is more polished and cleaner than 02, but the aromatics aren’t as dramatic. This is a seamless and accessible 05.

2002 Leroy Romanee Saint Vivant
Gorgeous aromatics, lush and long. This is considerably riper than the 01 RSV tasted a couple of weeks ago, and comes across as a lot more youthful. With air, there is a fine tea note on the finish that is quite exceptional. This is a 30 year wine easily, I would save this for the future and drink 01 in the near term if given such a fantastic choice.

1993 Leroy Vosne-Romanee Beaux Monts
VA dominated the aroma at first, and mostly blew off with time thankfully. This is stemmy and well balanced with lush fruit and classic Vosne spice. A very good wine, but ultimately the Grand Cru wines did outperform the 1ers today.

1996 D’Auvenay Bonnes Mares
Incredibly balanced, deep and precise. This wine delivered more in the mouth than on the nose, almost entirely muted aromas. While this is excellent, it wasn’t quite at the level of the 02 RSV and 09 Corton Renardes.

2009 Leroy Corton-Renardes
First taste this was tight and oaky, let it decant for a couple hours before serving and WOW did it blossom. This was so voluptuous and opulent, the kind of wine that I could drink the entire bottle in a flash by myself without trying if I ever had the chance. This is one of the best youngish red Grand Cru wines I have ever had.

The 02 RSV and 09 Corton-Renardes were like yin and yang. The RSV an intellectual wine where “you have to come to it” versus the Renardes which immediately plants a big kiss on you

Great line up! Ramonet’s 1999s are magical when they are not advanced.

A pity the d’Auvenay wasn’t a bit more expressive, but sounds like it was everything it should have been on the palate. The cuverie at d’Auvenay is cooler than the Domaine Leroy winery, and they only make two reds, so the fermentation kinetics are different (cooler, slower). The resulting wines always seem to be finer-boned.

I remember the first time I tasted the Leroy line up with Lalou. Her comment on the Corton was “ça renardes pas”, i.e., it (happily) doesn’t stink like a fox, something that it has subsequently been explained to me is a rather rustic turn of phrase.

Ya, that’s the way to put away 2020. Holy hell that’s a line-up

Thanks William, always appreciate your insights and anecdotes.

99 Ramonet has consistently been exceptional, and we got lucky with the best performing bottle any of us had ever tasted.

As for d’Auvenay I asked the group if they had had any reds that surpassed their whites, and the unanimous response was no. d’Auvenay whites have, thus far, outperformed reds for all of us. Some villages whites that were Grand Cru performances. And surely the ‘96 Bonnes Mares is excellent, it just didn’t thrill to quite the same extent as 02 RSV and 09 Corton Renardes.

When the competition is the d’Auvenay whites at their best, it’s hard to think of any red wines that would really be set up for success! But, I think if you had opened a 2002 Mazis-Chambertin or Bonnes-Mares, for example, in the company of those other bottles the style might have made more sense. At their best, they are hauntingly ethereal and unerringly precise. They are less dramatic out of the gates than the Domaine Leroy reds, but they might be even more exciting with fifty years on the clock - it’s too soon to say! For me, drinking the Bonnes-Mares has been very instructive, as the wine is very different to Christophe Roumier’s example, which I think many take as the benchmark Bonnes-Mares and which contributes to this idea of Bonnes-Mares as a very muscular wine.

Our conversation about the d’Auvenay led to a broader conversation about Bonnes Mares.

Collectively we love Roumier, but it’s also the most frustrating – too many bottles opened far too young, and too many older bottles that were corked or otherwise off. The bottles caught at just the right time with excellent provenance make it worth the pain. We were extremely fortunate to open a pristine '89 Roumier Bonnes Mares a few months ago that was mesmerizing, one of the top wines of the year.

We also discussed Mugnier Bonnes Mares, which until recently was a relative bargain. The best vintages of Mugnier are superb, and they tend to drink well far younger than Roumier. 2002 I have had many times over the years, and it’s been a superstar each time. 2009 was also quite precocious and gratifying. I love the style and will continue to seek out Mugnier.

Ramonet Montrachets are the greatest whites that have passed my palate. I still dream about 86 and 96 and am waiting for some younger vintages to age.

Great notes.

Alan ‘04 is also really special if you’re looking for a younger vintage. I don’t expect it will age like the 80’s vintages, but is delivering the magic now.

The funny thing about the 1989 Roumier wines is that they were made by Christophe’s father! He had pneumonia during the harvest, and gave his father instructions, demanding daily analyses, from his hospital bed in Dijon: he subsequently figured out that his father had given him last year’s numbers and simply made the wine his own way. So the 1989s represent a stylistic throw-back, and a very lovely one at that.

The Bonnes-Mares that has really impressed me in the last couple of vintages is Bouchard’s domaine rendition. The 2018 and 2019 were both super perfumed, elegant, fine-boned, mineral wines that—like the d’Auvenay example, and indeed Mugnier’s—call into question this perception that Bonnes-Mares needs to be some sort of monstrous hulk of a wine.

that’s very interesting. slight drift but how would you compare the domaine leroy auxey lavieres to the d’auvenay counterparts?

that’s the kind of story making Burgundy and the board so much fun. Of course, the year before, 1988, was the only year Christophe also made a VV, 3 barrels, I believe. I think I still have a bottle kicking around somewhere.

Was it VV or was it from the Terre Blanche plot? Or was that saying the same thing at the time?

Is our crude ‘merikin equivalent, “that doesn’t suck?”

same thing. Label had VV on it. I had picked up three bottles long ago.

I have to confess, I never tasted it! I know the various d’Auvenay Auxey cuvées well, but I never encountered the Leroy Lavières…

Would be interesting to taste Ramonet Montrachet next to D’Auvenay blanc or Coche MP. Perhaps as a post COVID celebration.

We did a Coche Dury Meursault Perrieres vertical a couple of months ago. Excellent wines, but not one of them was equal to a great vintage of Ramonet Montrachet in my opinion. A matter of personal taste I am sure, but to me Ramonet Montrachet at its best is quite extraordinary.

Fred, I’m ready to drink Coche, Ramonet, Lafon, PYCM, you name it, if it’s a post COVID celebration. Can’t wait - I’m tired of not drinking in groups!

Nice lineup Alex.

Fun little nugget there WK! 89 Roumier Bonnes Mares is probably the greatest 80’s red burg I’ve had!