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The Wines of Comte Armand and Benjamin Leroux
Beltramo's, Menlo Park
Tasted May 16, 2009 by drwine2001 with 519 views
Introduction
I very much enjoyed these wines although I am generally not a great admirer of Pommard. In almost each case, there was impressive evolution of the wines with aeration, and the young M Leroux (who was present at this event) does not seem predisposed to seek maximum extraction, so even the wines from Pommard and Nuits had noticeable finesse. While I am just starting to explore 2007 reds, I presume that a wine like the Volnay that was shown reflects some of the charm we can expect from these wines.
There were 3 white wines offered which I did not taste.
Flight 1 (7 notes)
White
2006 Comte Armand Auxey-Duresses Blanc
Medium anise. Fragrant anise. Medium to light body, crisp acidity, nice sweet entry. Straightforward black fruit, reasonable mid-palate, but then finishes bitter and clipped.
Red
2006 Comte Armand Volnay
Lighter color with dark fruit and stony notes. Like the Auxey Duresses, a pleasantly sweet entry. Light and crisp with excellent soil tones and a pungent, licorice lozenge finish. I liked this more as it opened in the glass-good village wine.
Red
2006 Comte Armand Volnay 1er Cru Les Fremiets
Medium ruby. Wood and pine notes to start. This is a step up in weight and texture from the village Volnay. Black fruit is supplemented by some redder elements as it opens, and it has very nice inner mouth aromatics and flavor expansion. Although the finish seemed a bit out of focus at first, this became more precise in the glass.
Red
2007 Benjamin Leroux Volnay 1er Cru Clos de la Cave des Ducs
Palest of the tasting. Attractive bright red fruit and toffee. Delicate weight and fruit with good acidity that becomes gentler and better integrated. Stony Volnay. I liked this.
Red
2007 Benjamin Leroux Nuits St. Georges Aux Allots
Slightly deeper than the wine that preceded it, but still on the light side. Scent of tannins and soil. Bigger wine than the '07 Volnay with black fruit and very soil inflected. Very good finish. As with several of these wines, positive development over the short tasting frame, here with the appearance of pretty, more red fruit aromatics. It makes perfect sense for a Pommard specialist to have a skillful touch with Nuits St. Georges fruit.
Red
2006 Comte Armand Pommard
Medium ruby. Menthol on the nose. Medium body, fairly round, but not sweet at all. Big tannins that are initially out of proportion to the fruit, but these do soften a bit. I prefer the village Volnay to this, but that is not to say that this is an inaccurate representation of its terroir.
Red
2006 Comte Armand Pommard 1er Cru Clos des Epeneaux
Same depth of color as the village Pommard, but much more fragrant, forward nose. Much finer and airy than the previous wine with hints of red fruit. The tannins still have significant grip but are less rustic. However, this wine went in the opposite direction of every other wine; instead of softening, it was tighter and even more grippy as time passed, a promising sign for its future development.