Brand: Domaine Leroy
Country: France
Region: Burgundy
Vintage: 2005
Rating: 94
VM94+: Bright ruby-red. Very ripe aromas of black cherry, minerals and licorice. Full, sweet and fat with fruit; can't quite match the Richebourg or RSV for floral high tones of sheer complexity but this too possesses a deep core of almost medicinal blackberry, licorice and menthol flavor. Perhaps a bit subdued today but stuffed with material. Finishes very long, with harmonious acids and building tannins.
WA94: Three micro-climatically diverse parcels – one of them rather recently replanted with a Leroy selection massale – inform the Leroy 2005 Clos Vougeot. Smoky, meaty aromas and a chalky density, smoky, salty meatiness along with black-fruited intensity on the palate are certainly in character for this appellation. This has girth and grip, a monumental structure and layering of meat, fruit, and mineral that lead one to anticipate formidable but glacial aging. There is not a lot of charm, no flattering high-toned perfume ... no, there is “just” a seamless meld of materials with massive yet superbly well-integrated tannic structure.