Lalou Bize-Leroy took the most extraordinary step of declassifying all of her upper level wines to villages level, creating in the process the most striking examples that I have ever tasted for their respective appellations. Given the incredible range of vineyards that Domaine Leroy possesses, this is not surprising but it does raise the obvious question as to why Mme. Bize elected to do such a thing in the first place. Creating a superlative Vosne by blending in the entirety of the Richebourg and RSV isn't hard to do but why do it at all? She explained that when her late husband Marcel Bize passed away, she became seriously depressed and found it difficult to take her normal interest her wines and even though she has a very capable team in place to look after them, she found the wines lacking in vibrancy and the level of quality with which she believes are what her clients deserve to find in the wines of the domaine. Thus, she elected to declassify all of them, including the wines from Domaine d'Auvenay (see above) which she owned outright with her husband. After tasting through the range, I commented that the wines were astonishing and in response, Mme Bize allowed that perhaps she shouldn't have declassified them after all. But then she brightened and noted, "yes but no one will ever be disappointed with wines such as these and even though it cost me plenty to do it, in the end, it's good for everyone." While it's difficult to argue with that philosophy, when one sees the truly admirable quality achieved, it seems a mild shame that so many potentially wonderful individual wines were blended away. Still, as the scores and notes suggest, this is an incredible group of wines, particularly the Bourgogne and all of them are recommended. Allen Meadows; Burghound