2017 Blagny La Piece Sous Le Bois 1er Cru

My tasting chez Leroux, at the winery just behind Bichot on the Beaune ring road, is often one of the lengthiest, since Benjamin Leroux oversees such a wide-ranging portfolio. This year, my workload was halved, as Stephen Tanzer tasted and reported on the whites. Still, the full complement of reds demands more than two hours. Surveying the barrel cellar now, it seems difficult to believe that up until three or four years ago, Leroux shared this facility with Nicolas Rossignol. Of course, Rossignol’s move to his own winery gave Leroux more space, and one advantage is that he can barrel down longer if he wishes. Another advantage is that there is room for oval foudres, a vessel uncommon in Burgundy, which is surprising, since I find it complements Pinot Noir.

“It was an easy vintage,” Leroux told me. “It is strange to pick in August, but I’m getting used to it. We had the storm on the Thursday [before the harvest] and then we started picking on August 30 with the Meursault Genevrières, expecting rain that never came, finishing in Gevrey-Chambertin on September 18. The strange thing is that some people were picking when my winery was already full. Most of the reds will be bottled under natural cork. The manufacturer tests the corks and guarantees less than 0.05 nanograms of cork taint. I’ve pulled back from using screw caps, apart from the entry-level regional wines.” The 2017s cover everything from Grand Cru down to regional wines, each with various percentages of stem addition, detailed within individual notes. “With 2017, I think they will give pleasure in their youth, but I am confident they will still be in very good shape in 10 years. The same things were said of the 2007 and they still drink well.”

There are so many wines that I will advise readers to peruse the individual tasting notes, but generally, I would say that Leroux has overseen a fine set of reds, even if not the very best in recent years. Indeed, reading his comments in Tanzer’s report, Leroux prefers his whites to his reds. However, I have no wish to disparage these wines because there are some splendid offerings. The most impressive come from Gevrey-Chambertin, courtesy of two fantastic Grand Crus in Mazis-Chambertin and Mazoyères-Chambertin that both have the hubris to outperform the Chambertin. Generally, the use of whole bunches is assiduous and Leroux is a dab hand at knowing when to add or not. Perhaps the one strong offering at the “value” end is his largest cru, the 2017 Vosne-Romanée Village, or one of his own pet favorites, the Vougeot Clos de Village.

Leroux began harvesting on August 31 with his Meursault Genevrières, with potential alcohols mostly between 12.6% and 13%. “We don’t pick early; we pick when the fruit is ripe,” said Leroux, who told me that he did little or no chaptalization. “We advanced our harvest starting date by about a week, so obviously the fruit was ripe.”

Still, acidity levels were sound and because there was relatively little tartaric acidity, the wines did not change a lot during the secondary fermentations. Virtually all of the ‘17s finished with 4.0 grams or more of acidity, added Leroux. “I liked their vibrancy from the beginning. They’re also ripe and have the ageworthy style I’m looking for. Wine is food and the ‘17s offer digestibility. It’s my best vintage for white wines other than 2014.”

Leroux noted that he doesn’t like to make predictions about the ageability of white wines but in the next breath offered that 2017 is a great vintage that should age well. Yields here were typically around 45 hectoliters per hectare and rarely exceeded 50, according to Leroux, who told me that he only stirs the lees if there’s residual sugar. “We don’t need to stir the lees for fatness,” he noted.