2023 Benjamin Leroux Auxey-Duresses Blanc
2023 Benjamin Leroux Auxey-Duresses Blanc

2023 Benjamin Leroux Auxey-Duresses Blanc

Benjamin Leroux |Burgundy |Chardonnay
Old-vine fruit on the Meursault border, smartly timed picking and Leroux’s precision touch make this one of the most reliable bargains in his cellar.
Price:
$149.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

Auxey-Duresses has always punched above its weight in Benjamin Leroux’s lineup, and the 2023 is no different. Fruit comes from two sites that sit right on the border with Meursault—Les Hautés and La Macabrée—so you’re getting that mix of freshness from the cooler exposure with a little extra flesh and generosity thanks to the deeper soils. Some of these vines go back as far as 1946, and you can feel that old-vine concentration in the glass.

In 2023, picking early was everything, and Ben nailed the timing. He brought this fruit in before the September heatwave and aged the wine in a mix of 12hl casks and 600L barrels. The result is a white that shows off the bright, stony detail you’d expect from a higher, breezier site, but it still has real depth and drive.

It’s classic Leroux in that it drinks beautifully young but has enough precision and stuffing to reward a few years in the cellar. Scarce as ever, but easily one of the best-value ways into the range.

Jasper Morris MW

Jasper Morris MW

Inside Burgundy 89 Points

Pale colour, a more restrained nose and the oak is not talking much. A lifted fresh greener fruit on the palate, but still properly ripe, with a supple, and subtle finish. Fair length. Drink from 2026-2030. 88-89 points

Neal Martin

Neal Martin

Vinous 89 Points

The 2023 Auxey-Duresses Blanc has a delightful, well-defined bouquet with citrus peel and Granny Smith scents. The palate is well balanced with light tropical notes countered by a fine bead of acidity and a touch of spice on the finish. This is worth seeking out. 87-89 points

Importer's Notes:

Leroux’s terrific Auxey-Duresses has always been one of the range’s great-value wines—drinking superbly young and aging very well, too. The fruit comes from two terroirs—Les Hautés and La Macabrée —both abutting Meursault’s Les Vireuils Dessous and Les Meix Chavaux. The oldest vines date back to 1946. The land here faces north, enduring the cold air rolling down from the Hautes Côtes—a very fresh terroir! The higher vineyards of the Côte often perform well in warmer years, and this is a perfect example of the phenomenon. You find the punchy, vibrant freshness and minerality of the place woven through a generous core of flesh. This was vinified in 12-hectolitre casks, with a portion of the blend raised for 15 months in 600-litre barrels.

The Vintage:

As far as Benjamin Leroux is concerned, 2023 is better than a good year. “It’s a great vintage,” he told us in Beaune earlier this year, “the red and white wines have always tasted well, and I’m sure they will always taste well.” As the great growers tend to do, Leroux made some crucial decisions this year. First of all, he started picking the Côte de Beaune whites on the August 29th, avoiding the unexpected heatwave that arrived on September 4th (the very day most growers had pencilled in to start picking).

Then, he picked the reds in the cool mornings after the canicule had passed, and the grapes immediately went into two large cool rooms installed outside the winery. He was over the moon with the quality, even if it had taken a significant effort to control the yields through de-budding, two green harvests and painstaking sorting. Ultimately, he achieved good yields with impeccable ripeness—most of the wines are below 13.5%.

With his desire to preserve freshness and purity, Leroux now ferments and ages 50% of his white wine in large casks and 50% of his reds (we have included 500 and 600-litre casks in that calculation). He also has an ever-growing stash of WineGlobes—often used in the second year to instil more purity—and stoneware amphora. Leroux is using more and more 456-litre barrels for the top wines, and any new 228-litre pièces used for Pinot are tempered with a white fermentation first. He also uses minimal added sulphur, with meticulous on-site testing as the wine ages.

Extraction for the reds is on the light side—“We can’t plunge three times a day anymore,” he says. The use of bunches is also adapted to each terroir: what works for Les Rugiens doesn’t necessarily work for Les Santenots. As for the quality, the overall standard is exceptionally high, and there are more than a few superstars from this year. The whites, in general, are supple, fleshy and bright, growing in minerality and tension as the wines tighten up in the bottle. Leroux likens them to a slightly more refined and less concentrated version of 2022—he sees impressive length and depth rather than scale and breadth.

If anything, Ben’s reds are even more impressive. Those who know the producer well will already know Leroux’s talent for producing age-worthy wines from a range of terroirs, even in tricky vintages. Twenty-twenty-three wasn’t an easy vintage to ace, and yet Leroux has consistently done so, in every appellation. Despite visiting and working with Leroux for over 15 years, we still don’t know how he does it! For the style of the reds, Leroux sees some similarities with 1999 (not a bad vintages to be compared with!) in that ripening came easily despite the larger crop, and there is no sign of dilution. In a simple generalisation we could say that the reds are loaded with charming fruit and silky structures. It’s a shining year for a grower-producer who does not know how to put a foot wrong.

Price Bracket $101 and Above
Type White
Body Full Bodied
Variety Chardonnay
Country France
Region Burgundy
Size 750ml
Vintage 2023
Closure DIAM Cork

Benjamin Leroux

Burgundian native Benjamin Leroux is one of the brightest minds and winemaking talents of his generation.

Considered a winemaking prodigy from an early age, Leroux attended the Lycée Viticole in Baune at the tender age of 13. Then, at the age of just 26, he ascended to the roles of manager and winemaker in the famed cellars of Domaine Comte Armand - a remarkable vote of confidence in one so young.

In 2007 he launched his eponymous label to wide critical acclaim. His has been a meteoric rise through the ranks of Burgundy's producers. His incisive modern approach to winemaking combined with his deep knowledge and respect for tradition has seen his small, hand-crafted cuveés coveted by collectors across the world.

These wines speak eloquently of where they come from. A legend in the making, Leroux's wines are some of the most exciting in modern-day Burgundy.

Ben Leroux in his cellar Discover Benjamin Leroux

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