2018 Griotte-Chambertin Grand Cru

I have followed the career winemaker Benjamin Leroux from his days at Domaine de la Vougeraie, though Domaine Comte Armand, then starting his own venture when he cohabited with Nicolas Rossignol to becoming the sole tenant of his winery in Beaune where there has been a proliferation of cuvées in recent years. Perhaps now as Leroux gets older, he is opening another chapter as the hunger to venture into new climats recedes and he focuses in on the sites he has an affinity. "I have bought an additional 3.6-hectares en fermage so that there are now 7.6-hectares, more Bourgogne Blanc, Meursault and much more Blagny La Pièce Sous Le Bois in red and white, also Volnay Santenots and Meursault Charmes-Dessus." This is part of Leroux’s transitioning from négociant to vineyard owner, a process that can only be done in piecemeal process unless you an outsider with bottomless pockets. We moved on to discuss the 2018 vintage. "We started the harvest on the 26 August," he told me up in his tasting room. "We knew it would be an early vintage before the summer holiday. There were no real surprises, even if we had been expecting to start around 30 August. Once we had begun picking, we sped up so that by 4 September, all the whites were picked. Then we started picking the reds on 5 September, finishing by around 11 September. We avoided the warm temperatures in the afternoons in the Côte de Nuits with a newly installed cool room, so now it’s much easier. We had around 60 different cuvées with only four that will not be affected by the Trump tax! The whites are continuing to be aged in tank and I think they need a long élevage. In fact, we might bottle the reds before the whites. For the whites we fermented in new barrels and then used those barrels to mature the reds. With respect to the reds, we played more on the whole bunch this year. They reduce the alcohol by around half a degree. We are continuing to use foudres to finish the élevage after barrel maturation instead of stainless steel. The white are closed under Diam but we still use natural cork for the reds." I did not have time to taste the complete range of 2018s from Leroux, but I made serious inroads with around 25 whites and reds up for inspection. His winemaking talent is obvious to see and whilst not every cuvée deserved superlatives, there is serious quality throughout his range from top to bottom.