2008 Vosne les Beaux Monts
By Domaine Leroy
2008 Vosne les Beaux Monts from Domaine Leroy, Burgundy, France
In the pantheon of Burgundy's venerated crus, Domaine Leroy's parcel of the fabled 'les Beaux Monts' continues to epitomise the acme of vinicultural artistry. The 2008 vintage in Vosne-Romanée defines itself with an assemblage of meteorological drama and adept vineyard stewardship, a symphony that ultimately graced the wines with remarkable freshness and longevity.
A Dance with Decadence: Harvesting Elegance Amidst Challenge
The growing season of 2008 saw a temperamental climate deftly navigated by the astute hands at Domaine Leroy. A cool summer ushered in an autumn that balanced the scales, providing a catalyst for impeccable phenolic ripeness without shedding the vintage’s intrinsic verve. It is this paradoxical dance between the challenging conditions and meticulous vinification that has chiselled the features of 2008 Vosne les Beaux Monts into a work of enological intrigue.
A Philosophical Approach to Winemaking
Lalou Bize-Leroy’s biodynamic fervour imparted on the vineyards a resilience and density that whispered into every berry's architecture. This intrinsic complexity translates into a bouquet wherein whispers of ripe cherries, violets, and ethereal spices congregate to awaken one's senses. Similarly, on the palate, there is a duality - potent concentration collides with agile acidity underlining this wine’s investment merit beyond its sensory delight.
The tannins are woven with surgical precision, staging Domaine Leroy's hallmark elegance while encapsulating the essence of Vosne-Romanée terroir. The length on this vintage is nothing short of capacious; a testament to wine's potential for graceful evolution in the cellar.
In conclusion, captaining one's portfolio with the 2008 Vosne les Beaux Monts from Domaine Leroy, is akin to anchoring an artful stronghold amidst your investment collectibles. The poised dance of fruit, earth, and structure in this Highland Burgundy offers not just immediate pleasure but promises a trajectory that will resonate splendidly through time for collectors patient enough to witness its unfolding narrative.
Market price (USD)
$58,190.00
12x75cl
Highest score
92
POP score
3972.5
Scores and tasting notes
There are hints of game and even a whiff of manure on the nose of Bize-Leroy’s 2008 Vosne-Romanee Les Beaux Monts in a manner for which other wines in this collection will already have prepared you, here accompanied by smoky black tea and peat, along with ripe black fruits that come to the palate piquantly as well as tartly invigorating. Neither the mysterious low tones and minerality nor the vivacity of the corresponding Brulees are present here, but there is an almost implosive, sap-like sense of tiny-berry concentration mingled with resin and meat stock reduction that you simply can’t get off of your palate. I suspect that we’re dealing here with a late-bloomer and would wait to revisit this for at least half a dozen years, figuring that it will be well worth following for at least 15-20. Lalou Bize-Leroy reports average 2008 Pinot Noir yields of 13 hectoliters per hectare, almost absurdly tiny even by her singular standards. Malos were a bit later than usual but were finished by summer, and the wines bottled – as usual – in December. Yet – also as usual – if their development was thereby in any way stunted, you certainly won’t detect it in the bottle today! The best of these display a sense of transparency; levity; and – even when rich and head-spinningly complex – a sheer sense of refreshment and invigoration that I have seldom encountered in other great wines from these sister estates. (Please note that my account of the complete 2007 red collection at Leroy was published in issue #189.) Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040
David Schildknecht - The Wine Advocate, 28 June 2010