2023 Benjamin Leroux Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru La Piece Sous Le Bois Blanc
2023 Benjamin Leroux Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru La Piece Sous Le Bois Blanc

2023 Benjamin Leroux Meursault-Blagny 1er Cru La Piece Sous Le Bois Blanc

94 pts
Benjamin Leroux |Burgundy |Chardonnay
High-altitude, rocky terroir meets Leroux’s precision to deliver a tense, mineral-driven premier cru with real personality and scarcity on its side.
Price:
$499.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship, only 3 units left
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Description

This has quietly become one of Benjamin Leroux’s signature wines, drawn from a large slice of one of Meursault’s highest and rockiest vineyards. Leroux now farms 1.5 of the 2.2 hectares of Chardonnay here, with vines averaging 50 years of age and farmed under biodynamics. Sitting between 320 and 350 metres, this is a site that feels more like Saint-Aubin in character – cold winters, plenty of summer sun, and soils dominated by limestone scree. It’s a tough, marginal terroir, but that’s exactly what gives the wine its tension and edge.

In 2023, Leroux picked just before the September heatwave hit, locking in freshness. Fermentation and élevage were spread across a mix of vessels, including a new egg-shaped foudre and even a glass WineGlobe, all part of Ben’s ongoing pursuit of purity. The result is a wine that has drive and cut, but also carries a core of ripe orchard fruit and spice from this well-exposed slope.

Production is tiny, and the vineyard’s altitude and rocky soils make this one of the most distinctive premiers crus in Leroux’s cellar. It’s also one of the smartest buys if you want to see how he handles the more extreme sites.

Christy Canterbury MW

Tim Atkin Burgundy Report 93 Points

Swooshing out of the glass with a toasted spice nose, this has a glossy, moderately dense palate, ample sweet apple fruits and a subtley mineral finish. This hails from a big, 2.2 ha plot (about 0.7 is planted to Pinot Noir) planted high on the slope. The resounding, tangy acidity is a testament to the vines' positioning.

Jasper Morris MW

Jasper Morris MW

Inside Burgundy 94 Points

This has exactly the limestone feel to the nose that one hopes for, with elegance rather than too much of a stony feel, picked on 4th September, the first day of the real heatwave. Fuller finish, with plenty of energy. 91-94 points

Importer's Notes:

This is now a flagship wine for Leroux, who works 1.5 of the 2.2 hectares of Chardonnay available. Leroux’s vines average 50 years old and are biodynamically certified. This is perhaps Ben’s most extreme and rocky terroir. While it lies at high altitude (320 to 350 metres) and endures bitterly cold winters, the vineyard picks up plenty of sun during the summer. Listening to Leroux talk about Blagny, he clearly loves the Saint Aubin-style terroir. He used various aging vessels for this release, including a glass WineGlobe and a new egg-shaped foudre.

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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