The Auxey-Duresses Les Boutonniers has a smoky and oak spice imbued nose which gives way to an explosion of intense and bracing minerals, gravel, white grapes, sweet berries, and stones on the palate. This medium-to-full-bodied, velvety-textured and admirably balanced wine is hugely concentrated and unbelievably long on the finish. It should hit its peak around 2004 and last at least until 2010.
Kudos for Mme. Leroy for producing such a majestic range of white Burgundies.
If I were still in college, I would visit my professor of ethics to debate the wisdom of spending hundreds of dollars for a bottle of wine that may not be at its peak for 15 years after the vintage. My sense is that after an hour or so of spirited discussion we would come to the banal conclusion that rather than taste, discipline, and passion, one's discretionary income was the critical factor. These wines are astronomically expensive and will require considerable age before attaining their respective peaks. Ideally, enormously wealthy wine lovers will acquire them for their children to enjoy (Mme. Bize-Leroy boldly said "I fully expect my white 1996s to remain youthful for fifty years.").
Whereas other producers covered me with explanations as to why high yields were acceptable in 1996, Lalou Bize-Leroy averaged 15 hectoliters/hectare on her whites, less than one third the yields she could have taken. A self-proclaimed non-interventionist, she told me "all the oenologists told me to deacidify my wines in 1996. To me it is a crime, akin to de-boning a man. Wine is life." Leroy, who says she always harvests late in order to gain additional ripeness, only chaptalised one of her 1996s, the Chevalier-Montrachet (2 kilograms of sugar per barrel). None of these offerings were fined or filtered. Consequently, they are already throwing a deposit.
Importers: Martine's Wines, Inc., San Rafael, CA; tel (415) 485-1800.
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