A compelling mix of wood and Vosne spice explode from the glass to complement the almost exclusively black pinot fruit aromas that also display touches of earth and toast that lead to very rich, fleshy and almost plump full-bodied flavors underpinned by suave and ripe tannins on the mouth coating finish. This is certainly a fine wine by any standard and even more so in the context of a villages level wine but I usually find it to be the class of the Leroy “lower level” wines yet it does not dominate in 2005. (89-91)/2013+

Lalou Bize-Leroy calls 2005 an “excellent millésime in both colors. There is a harmony to this vintage that speaks of la grande classe and you can feel it in the quality of the tannins, which are refined and very ripe. The level of phenolic ripeness in thisvintage is really something yet there is absolutely no sense of surmaturité or heaviness. Overall, including the Bourgogne, we brought in just under 20 hl/ha, which for us is a good yield. Sugars were excellent at between 13 and 13.5% as were the acidities and the post malo pHs were also terrific at around 3.4. Overall, the vintage really has no direct parallel but I suppose it reminds me somewhat of 1996 or perhaps 1999.” In contrast to several recent vintages where the wines were bottled very early, Mme Bize told me that they would begin the bottling for the ‘05s at the end of November so I tasted them just before they were to be racked into 4 barrel groups for the mise. The Leroy ‘05s are exceptional by any measure and several of the 1ers are simply incredible and while it’s hard to call any wines that sell for the prices that these do bargains, if such a term can be applied to them then it applies to the best of these 1ers, in particular the Beaux Monts and Chambolle Charmes, which are quite simply mind bending. – Allen Meadows (Burghound)