2005 Domaine Leroy Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru

This one sings, dances and tells your fortune. Very very bright and jewelly. Really lively burgundy with lots of life and richness though great balance and good acidity. Firm with fine tannins. Definite structure and a hand on your sleeve to stop you drinking this too soon. Very firm and well constructed. (JR)

Leroy’s 2005 Romanee-St.-Vivant is improbably dark and deep in color even by her standards, and darkness and depth characterize its personality as well. Clove, cumin, cocoa powder, lily, and black pepper complement a nose of distinctly liqueur-like black fruits. In the mouth, this is liquid velvet. Chocolate-covered black cherries, plum preserves, and truffles are laced with creme de cassis and soy, underlain by a decidedly stony, chalky minerality and a fine but firm web of tannin. By now one realizes that 2005 is an exceptional vintage for this site in and of itself, but one would never confuse the D.R.C. or Potel renditions with this flamboyant, extravagantly-rich version from Leroy. Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-0400

Saturated ruby-red. Captivating aromas of maraschino cherry, cocoa powder and rose petal. Dense, chewy and sappy, with explosive, palate-saturating maraschino cherry given grip by a strong core of minerality. Conveys a powerfully tactile impression of extract. Extremely long and chewy on the back end; in fact, one of the longest 2005s I sampled in November. A knockout in the making.