Domaine Leroy Nuits Saint-Georges "Aux Allots" 2011

Find below WineAdvocate's Neal Martin's comment in English on August 29, 2013: 

"The 2011 Nuits St.Georges Les Allots has a striking bouquet, more immediate than the Pommard with lifted mineralite, beautifully defined and focused.

The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannins, waves of black currant and raspberry fruit underlined by superb tension and poise.

Everything is reined in toward the finish that is very composed with a long aftertaste and spicy coda. Excllent.

Since I started visiting chateaux and growers in 1997, I have been fortunate to have ticked off most of my personal Holy Grails, yet a handful remain.

One was to visit Domaine Leroy and taste with Lalou Bize-Leroy, who I have only met briefly on two occasions in London.

Given the responsibility of covering Burgundy, I avowed to tick that one off as soon as possible

Of course, one must always remain objective, and I have been around the block enough times to simply relate precisely what I find within the radius of a wineglass.

And in 2011, it was clear that the wines of Lalou Bize-Leroy seemed to deliver a sensational level of quality that would make most winemakers curl up and weep, asking: “How does she do it?” I had to inquire at the end of the tasting whether they were all matured entirely in new oak, so seamlessly was the wood embroidered into each cuvee.

Tasting through the entire range of 23 wines, before zooming down to Domaine d’Auvenay, the high points were scintillating Nuits-St-Georges Village Crus that transcended all my expectations and the sheer consistency of the Grand Crus, perhaps with the exception of the 2011 Latricieres-Chambertin, which I have always found wanting in the past.

The Romanee-St-Vivant could be the apotheosis of the vintage, certainly one of the finest that I have tasted from the domaine and even dared “out-finesse” the Richebourg.

What amazed me was the otherworldly precision, as if you could pick out each aroma or flavor from the air. Only the Chambolle-Musigny Charmes appeared unruly when compared to its peers, a little too feisty on the nose for my liking. Otherwise, this is just magic in a glass".