2007 Richebourg

Its forward, succulent sweetness of red raspberry and purple plum fruit accompanied by blond tobacco and smoked meat set Leroy’s 2007 Richebourg apart from its Romanee-St.-Vivant sibling, whose utterly contrasting personality may convey more alluring mystery and complexity, but cannot compete with the sheer sappy concentration and particular energy and exuberance on display. There is a meaty savor, smoky tang, and brightness of berry fruit that truly stains the palate. I expect this is another Leroy wine that will defy its vintage by retaining stamina for two or more decades, and in the process will almost certainly reveal further facets. The results Lalou Bize-Leroy achieved in 2006 – as I wrote in my previous red Burgundy report – were especially notable considering the misgivings she expressed early on about that vintage. She appeared more enthusiastic early on about 2007, but in this instance it’s far from merely notable – frankly, it’s utterly improbable – the richness and complexity that the Leroy team has achieved, especially considering that harvesting began here already on August 27! This collection is quite distinctive even from the very few others of its vintage that come even remotely close in quality. These 2007s display a sense of effortless effusiveness, primary juiciness, and – I don’t know how to put this less nebulously – elegance and in the best instances transparency, contrasting with the impressions of tumescent ripeness, coagulation, and new wood veneer that in some vintages accompany the profound richness of Leroy reds. As usual, the wines were all bottled in December, which at least in this vintage seems less difficult to reconcile with their exceptional quality than it does in vintages like 2005 or 2008, when so many of the other top practitioners of red Burgundy emphasize the need for longer elevage. Extremely low yields are of course also a common denominator among Bize-Leroy’s collections, although in the challenging 2007 vintage, she had somewhat more company than usual among fellow-vignerons in the roughly 20 hectoliter-per-hectare range. (And that was bounteous compared with the 13 hectoliters per hectare Bize-Leroy reports having managed in 2008, a vintage from which she did not want to show her bottled wines until June of this year, so that I shall publish notes on them in my follow-up to the present report.) Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400

Good deep medium red. Locked up tight on the nose. Tight on entry, then juicy, compressed and extremely young in the middle palate, with a powerful minerality and firm acidity combining to keep the wine's sharply delineated fruit and mineral flavors under wraps. This classic Richebourg is most impressive today on its slowly mounting, very long and gripping back end. (Incidentally, in my early look at the Leroy 2008s, I preferred the Richebourg to the Romanee-Saint-Vivant, but not in 2007.)