2009 Corton Charlemagne

The 2009 Corton-Charlemagne is a huge wine, but like all of Lalou Bize’s 2009s, the whites are taking longer to recover from their bottling than the reds. There is plenty of depth and richness in the glass, but this still needs a few years in bottle to come together. Smoke, spices and wet stones frame the intense finish. Anticipated maturity: 2019+. This was my first opportunity to taste the 2009s from Domaine Leroy in bottle. Lalou Bize-Leroy was among the first, if not the first, to bottle her 2009s, so she naturally wanted to give the wines some time to recover before showing them. The wines are stunning. Readers who have an opportunity to taste them should not hesitate. As always, the style is one of textural richness and depth, but the2009s appear to have excellent underlying material as well. The attention to every detail at the Domaine is quite evident in these thrilling wines. My visit ended with a sample of the 2010 Chambertin from barrel. Why not go straight to the top? If that wine is representative of the year, Leroy fans will have another superb vintage to look forward to, although yields will be lower than the already minuscule production. Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040

The 2009 Corton-Charlemagne is a huge wine, but like all of Lalou Bize’s 2009s, the whites are taking longer to recover from their bottling than the reds. There is plenty of depth and richness in the glass, but this still needs a few years in bottle to come together. Smoke, spices and wet stones frame the intense finish. Anticipated maturity: 2019+.<br><br>This was my first opportunity to taste the 2009s from Domaine Leroy in bottle. Lalou Bize-Leroy was among the first, if not the first, to bottle her 2009s, so she naturally wanted to give the wines some time to recover before showing them. The wines are stunning. Readers who have an opportunity to taste them should not hesitate. As always, the style is one of textural richness and depth, but the2009s appear to have excellent underlying material as well. The attention to every detail at the Domaine is quite evident in these thrilling wines. My visit ended with a sample of the 2010 Chambertin from barrel. Why not go straight to the top? If that wine is representative of the year, Leroy fans will have another superb vintage to look forward to, although yields will be lower than the already minuscule production. Sep 20111, www.robertparker.com, Drink: 2019+

An exotic, ripe and expressive nose of spiced apple, orange, tangerine and a compote of peach aromas gives way to phenomenally rich, powerful and almost painfully intense large-scaled flavors that possess seemingly endless reserves of palate staining dry extract. The minerality is overtly pungent and the mouth feel is very much akin to rolling rocks around in your mouth while waiting for the explosively long finish. 2009 is not what I would describe as an elegant vintage for this wine but whether it is or not, this bold and highly dramatic effort is impressive as hell. Jun 2012, www.burghound.com, Drink: 2021+