2010 Benjamin Leroux Puligny-Montrachet

The 2010 Puligny-Montrachet is layered, soft and impeccably pure. Exotic yellow fruits, flower and spices are all woven together in this soft, inviting village-level Puligny. The wine’s minerality comes through on the finish, providing an attractive foil to the suppleness of the fruit. This is an immediate, expressive Puligny to drink now and over the next few years. While attractive, this lacks the thrill of the best wines in the cellar. Hail a week before harvest explains much of that. Anticipated maturity: 2012+. Benjamin Leroux is probably best known to readers for his superb work at Comte Armand, but the wines Leroux crafts under his own micro-negociant label are equally worthy of attention. Readers may also want to check out my video interview with Leroux on our website for more on his views on current vintages. In addition to the wines listed here, I also tasted just about all the 2011 whites. Those wines are shaping up beautifully and in some cases will rival or perhaps even surpass the 2010s for their balance. If the 2010s have a weakness here, it is that they are at times a bit on the heavy side. A Becky Wasserman Selection, Le Serbet, various American importers, including: Fine Vines, IL; tel. (708) 343-6702, Cavatappi, Washington; tel. (206) 282-5226, Veritas Imports, CA; tel. (310) 205-3800, Verity Wine Partners, New York, NY; tel. (212) 683-8763

The 2010 Puligny-Montrachet is a gorgeous, tightly wound wine laced with Mirabelle plums, apricots, and white flowers, all of which come together beautifully in the glass. Thouch somewhat closed in on itself today, the Puligny-Montrachet has more than enough depth to make me think it will grow into a beautiful wine.