88 By Robert Parker
The 2014 Meursault Villages, a blend of several vineyards including vines in Meursault-Blagny, has an elegant bouquet with hints of white peach, almond and grilled walnut that gently unfold. The palate is crisp on the entry with a taut line of acidity, a keen citric line that renders it almost Puligny-like in style, with fresh green apple, kiwi fruit and a dab of ginger furnishing the finish.
Benjamin Leroux is an interesting person. I write "person" rather than "winemaker" here. One is the same as the other. What I particularly find interesting is that whenever I visit Leroux at his winery on the Beaune périphique, I find him open to showing his thinking, what his plans are, almost as if I were not in the same cellar. Most domaines and winemakers keep plans, ideas and dreams to themselves, but he is clear about where he's been (Bordeaux and Comte Armand), where he's at (now focused entirely upon his namesake négoçiant label), and where he intends to go (shifting more and more towards farming his own vines having acquired parcels in Blagny in 2013, but wishing never to own more than five or six hectares). As I have mentioned elsewhere, Nicolas Rossignol is currently building his own winery and will move out of the facility he rents from Leroux. He will not be seeking a new cohabitant and is looking forward to having more space, with the barrels one or two tiers high and not three, enabling him to be more exact about the racking in the future -- just being able to spread his arms a bit. Like any winemaker, he is ambitious, though not in terms of expanding his empire geographically, but meliorating his own wines, achieving higher standards.
I tasted through his entire range of whites and reds over a marathon three-hour session, interpolated by a free-flowing conversation that touched on all manner of unprintable subjects, also, a brief intermission after Jean-Marc Roulot’s father-in-law popped in. Of course, he was touched by the suzukii fruit fly here and there, but he said it was easy to sort out, lopping off any infected bunches in the vineyard with such rigor that he said that hardly any sorting needed to be done at the winery. Some parcels were impacted by hail damage, especially between Beaune and Meursault, although it seems he, like many vignerons, have become inured to it.
It will be fascinating to plot the next chapter of Benjamine Leroux. He's not sure whether his children will be drawn towards winemaking or not. They're too young at the moment. He is certainly driven to leave a legacy for them, a business to take over one day, however big or small. Perhaps a sign that they will be attracted to wine is stuck on the entrance door, a child's drawing of “daddy” with a bottle of vino, the word “Ben” scrawled above the matchstick figure.
The 2014 Meursault Villages, a blend of several vineyards including vines in Meursault-Blagny, has an elegant bouquet with hints of white peach, almond and grilled walnut that gently unfold. The palate is crisp on the entry with a taut line of acidity, a keen citric line that renders it almost Puligny-like in style, with fresh green apple, kiwi fruit and a dab of ginger furnishing the finish.
Benjamin Leroux is an interesting person. I write "person" rather than "winemaker" here. One is the same as the other. What I particularly find interesting is that whenever I visit Leroux at his winery on the Beaune périphique, I find him open to showing his thinking, what his plans are, almost as if I were not in the same cellar. Most domaines and winemakers keep plans, ideas and dreams to themselves, but he is clear about where he's been (Bordeaux and Comte Armand), where he's at (now focused entirely upon his namesake négoçiant label), and where he intends to go (shifting more and more towards farming his own vines having acquired parcels in Blagny in 2013, but wishing never to own more than five or six hectares). As I have mentioned elsewhere, Nicolas Rossignol is currently building his own winery and will move out of the facility he rents from Leroux. He will not be seeking a new cohabitant and is looking forward to having more space, with the barrels one or two tiers high and not three, enabling him to be more exact about the racking in the future -- just being able to spread his arms a bit. Like any winemaker, he is ambitious, though not in terms of expanding his empire geographically, but meliorating his own wines, achieving higher standards.
I tasted through his entire range of whites and reds over a marathon three-hour session, interpolated by a free-flowing conversation that touched on all manner of unprintable subjects, also, a brief intermission after Jean-Marc Roulot’s father-in-law popped in. Of course, he was touched by the suzukii fruit fly here and there, but he said it was easy to sort out, lopping off any infected bunches in the vineyard with such rigor that he said that hardly any sorting needed to be done at the winery. Some parcels were impacted by hail damage, especially between Beaune and Meursault, although it seems he, like many vignerons, have become inured to it.
It will be fascinating to plot the next chapter of Benjamine Leroux. He's not sure whether his children will be drawn towards winemaking or not. They're too young at the moment. He is certainly driven to leave a legacy for them, a business to take over one day, however big or small. Perhaps a sign that they will be attracted to wine is stuck on the entrance door, a child's drawing of “daddy” with a bottle of vino, the word “Ben” scrawled above the matchstick figure.
