2023 Benjamin Leroux Savigny-les-Beaune Rouge
2023 Benjamin Leroux Savigny-les-Beaune Rouge

2023 Benjamin Leroux Savigny-les-Beaune Rouge

Benjamin Leroux |Burgundy |Pinot Noir
Built around old-vine Aux Fourneaux and lifted by fruit from Saucours, this is a classy, well-balanced Savigny that shows Leroux’s touch and excellent value for a Côte de Beaune red.
Price:
$149.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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Description

The backbone of this cuvée is Aux Fourneaux, one of Savigny’s best sites, where Leroux works with a lot of Pinot Fin – the old, low-yielding material that naturally gives smaller berries and real concentration.

About 10% of the fruit comes from the 1er Cru section of this vineyard, adding another layer of depth. In 2023, Leroux added a new component: Saucours, a site that stretches toward Les Hauts Jarrons and sits on more alluvial soils. It brings a lift of bright, red-fruited charm that balances Fourneaux’s darker, more structured edge. The result is a blend that may even be more complete than before.

The fruit was mostly destemmed, with just 15% whole bunches to bring gentle perfume and energy. It was then raised in a mix of vessels to keep things fresh and transparent. The 2023 vintage here shows plenty of Savigny character – raspberry and spice with a supple mid-palate and fine, lightly grippy tannins. It’s approachable young, but there’s enough structure to see it settle and open nicely over the next 5-7 years.

Jasper Morris MW

Jasper Morris MW

Inside Burgundy 89 Points

A blend of Fourneaux, Saucours and Clous. Mid purple. Rather more backward on the nose, with plenty of raspberry on the palate, then some tannins. Not yet bottled and needs a little more elevage. 88-89 points

Importer's Notes:

The lion’s share of this release comes from the outstanding Aux Fourneaux lieu-dit in the north of the village. Leroux works with lots of Pinot Fin here (a high-quality, low-yielding Pinot Noir cultivar), giving low yields and great concentration. The fruit from these vines, fermented with 15% bunches, includes about 10% from the 1er Cru section of the vineyard. The Connardises parcel that used to contribute to this cuvée has now been sold, and replaced this year by Saucours, a vineyard on the western extension of the slope that includes Les Hauts Jarrons. Leroux explains that Saucours, on alluvial soils, brings the bright red fruits and Aux Fourneaux provides the depth and backbone. It’s a fine combination that may even surpass the previous blend.

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 Red
Body Light Bodied
Variety Pinot Noir
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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