2020 Pommard Les Vignots

Lalou Bize-Leroy’s 2020s are big, opulent wines that capture the radiance of the year. Dramatic and large in scale, the 2020s are going to need many years to shed their youthful exuberance. Even then, I expect these will always be super-rich Burgundies. I find some of the 2020s on the edge for my personal taste. Harvest took place between August 24 and 31, shockingly early by any standard. “Everything was ripe,” Lalou Bize-Leroy explains. “When it is ready, it is ready.” Yields were 14.8 hectoliters per hectare, on average, although one always has to take into account that, as a matter of practice, dead vines are not replanted. The 2020s were bottled in June 2021, which almost certainly makes Leroy the earliest bottler in Burgundy. “I like to capture all the fruit in my wines, if possible, if the malos are done and if everything is perfect,” Lalou adds in her matter-of-fact style. These remain some of the most unique and riveting wines in the world.