Benjamin Leroux Bourgogne Rouge 2020 – An extraordinarily rare opportunity to buy one of the most sought after Bourgs on the planet by the case.
If this doesn’t excite our Burg customers then I don’t know what will. 

Fresh vibrant purple, riotously juicy fruit on the nose, exuberant but lovely. Textbook JASPER MORRIS MW

A marvellous result… The texture is totally Burgundian - light, ephemeral, but hauntingly long on the palate. CHARLES CURTIS MW, Decanter

He certainly has the gift of touch that seems to elevate everything from village crus to grand crus. NEAL MARTIN Vinous

Benjamin Leroux is quiet and unassuming, but his wines more than speak for themselves … some of the most interesting wines being made in Burgundy today. ANTONIO GALLONI

You may remember that when I asked Allen Meadows, aka Burghound, on this video who he thought might be a natural heir to the late great Henri Jayer of Burgundy, one of the two people he cited was young Benjamin Leroux of Domaine Comte Armand. JANCIS ROBINSON MW

I found much to like among Leroux's 2020s, and in both colors, so they're worth strongly considering. Leroux noted that all of the reds, save for the Bourgogne, are bottled under natural cork. BURGHOUND

With regard to the reds, the yields are much lower, sometimes half those of the whites. I found plenty of very attractive aromatics. I sought Pinot Noirs that managed to remain in the red fruit spectrum...On the palate, the 2020 vintage generally displays quite fine tannins, an impressive feat considering the high skin-to-juice ratio, and this is surely a result of gentler pressings. Back in the 1990s, I can imagine some winemakers going hell-for-leather toward the dense, concentrated wines that were then in vogue. But this is a growing season where the “less is more” approach clearly paid dividends. The best 2020s have intensity rather than power, often manifesting sorbet-like traits and frequently a tang of blood orange. NEAL MARTIN

The 2020 red Burgundies are arresting wines. Their deep, saturated hues are immediately striking and without obvious precedent, prompting Bouchard’s Frédéric Weber to trawl through the firm’s archived harvest notes to look for comparisons: he landed on 1929, a vintage therein described as being the deepest-hued of the century (“les robes de siècle”). And their appearance doesn’t lie, for these are undeniably concentrated wines... there are more than a few producers who appear to have produced 2020s that surpass their 2019s, and the potential longevity of 2020 would also appear to exceed that of 2019. WILLIAM KELLEY

[ON THE REDS]...the best 2020s are those with clarity and fluidity, airy despite their cool-fruited concentration – they are marvellous – this would, largely, describe most of the fine domaines of the Côte de Nuits in 2020 – i.e. equivalent to, or sometimes a hint more concentrated than their equivalents in 2019 – seemingly without additional negatives. BILL NANSON, Burgundy Report

This is awesome!

Our total allocation of this wine last year was 20 bottles…

Our allocation of this 2020, back when it was released, was 36 bottles… just three cases. I have a sizeable chunk now, just arrived fresh from the great man’s cellar, of one of the most sought after Bourgogne on the market. Not often I get excited about a Bourgogne Rouge offer, but here we are. Let’s GO!

If you ever wanted proof as to why Bennie boy gets all the plaudits give this a go.

If you aren’t already a fan but wonder why everyone gets so excited, why his wines sell out in a flash every year, try this. You aren’t likely to get another chance to buy a case of any of Leroux’s wines anytime soon…

Need a bottle of Burg for home that won’t break the bank, that delivers quality well above its appellation? Yeah, you guessed it, give this a go.

We tasted it the other day, a couple of years in the bottle has really opened this bad boy up a good degree. There is a lovely presence to the medium bodied, dark tinged and juicy fruit. Little hints of spice and underbrush accentuate the aromatically engaging fruit profile and a dollop of mineral presence underpins those same characters in the mouth. There is the right amount of stuffing here, enough support to see this mature beautifully for another handful of years, but it drinks really well now, in part because of those fine tannins. It’s a better wine than many, many producers village wines that sell for a lot more.

Also, not that I think it should matter too much with a wine like this, but its essentially the same price as last year as well. A belter of a vintage for Ben and available in some quantity, I feel the force at work here, some kind of benevolent power pulling the universal strings to guide a big nugget of this wine to us to be able to share with you. It’s either divine intervention, or very careful planning from the importer who has looked after us and secured the entire lot so we can offer it to our customers.

I don’t think it needs it, Leroux is easily among the most sought after producers we offer every year, and like I said, we normally only get a few dozen of this wine, but here is a last little pitch. One more little go at trying to convince anyone sitting on the fence here.

Leroux is a master of his craft. Few in Burgundy rival his natural talents and can match his determination to uncover the deepest secrets of the region and its wines. Tasting with him at his cellar is always pretty incredible. He makes so many cuvees now that a lot of the critics only taste a double handful each year. understandable, if you have a full day of tasting and one visit is 54 wines, its going to be a long day. It’s quite remarkable how much attention he pays to each of these wines, from the vineyards up. I think that is what sets him apart from so many. His Bourgogne is aged in old, large, Slovenian wood, all Stockinger from memory. That’s a very luxurious way to raise and tend a Bourgogne. That kind of approach has cost him a lot over the years but the results are genuinely staggering.

All the fruit for this is Volnay and Pommard, for those that don’t know his background, he is THE master of these Beaune communes, and this could easily have become two village wines, or lieux-dits bottlings. He takes his reference point Bourgogne very seriously and that shines through in the quality and overall presence and stature of this wine in the glass.

All of us loved it and a little scuffle ensued about who would get to write it up. Gab and I nearly arm wrestled for it. But I hate losing so I took seniority instead… haha

There you have it. A fairly long winded intro to someone that probably doesn’t need any at all. A sales pitch for a wine that sells itself. I feel a little redundant but at least I can help by entering your orders for you.

As I mentioned. We have secured all of this that came to Australia. Its way more than we usually get. Rather than their being 2 or 3 bottle limits per customer I am in a position to do a special six pack and dozen price. I haven’t done that since the very early days of Leroux. It’s a very nice feeling to think that some of our customers will wind up with cases of this gem in their private stashes.