2012 Pommard Les Vignots
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Tasting notes
It's hard to imagine that a tasting in this cellar starts with the stunning 2012 Pommard Les Vignots, a wine that many growers would be thrilled to have as their top cuvée. Dark, powerful and explosive in the glass, the Vignots is a compelling example of just how rich the wines are in the Côte de Beaune in 2012. This is a decidedly dark, brooding Vignots built on density and volume, with enough tannin to age well for many years.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Four pièces from 1.25 ha. Very concentrated and dark. Big and masculine and ambitious. A very good start. Lots of juice. Long. Lip smacking. (JR)
The 2012 Pommard Les Vignots has a tightly wound bouquet with briary and blackberry scents. The palate has a firm backbone, with plenty of energy. Black fruit here, brambly, with touches of dark chocolate infusing the energetic finish. This is very fine. Lalou Bize-Leroy’s domaine wines are not the easiest to procure, but given that in 2012 the average rendement was a paltry 9hl/ha then I am envisaging a few lively “discussions” on the touchy subject of allocations. Lalou, suffering the sniffles when I visited but as energetic as always, was ecstatic about her 2012s, regaling them for their mineralite and terroir expression. She started picking on 17 September, a little earlier than others, and told me that the malo-lactics were a little tardier than usual because of the fresh acidity levels. Certainly some of the samples demonstrated a lot of reduction, more than Lalou was care to admit, but peering through them, there really were some quite astonishing wines in her midst. I speculate that the better Lalou’s wines, the more excited her two dogs behave during the tasting, and our two hour degustation was interspersed by manic tail wagging, the occasion tussle and one growling stand-off at the precise moment I had her magisterial Musigny in my glass. The journey through the grand crus was exhilarating, each suffused with untrammeled energy and tension, more expressive of their terroirs than the 2011s that I tasted back in July. There is a part of me that wants to by cynical given the stratospheric prices demanded, as if to say to Lalou: “Prove it.” And that’s the thing – they go ahead and prove that these are some of the finest Pinot Noirs produced on Earth. Readers should not that Lalou invited me to taste her 2012s either from barrel or later in bottle, whichever I prefer but not both due to miniscule quantities that are often just a single barrel, a position I completely respect and support. I would have chose the latter if I was being selfish, but the former to offer some guidance and some juxtaposition with other vignerons. Also, I did not taste the wines from Domaine d’Auvenay simply because the quantities are so depleted in 2012. Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040 and through Justerini & Brooks (UK)
About the producer
For many, Domaine Leroy represents the pinnacle of fine Burgundy. Owned and run by the legendary Lalou Bize-Leroy, the domaine in Vosne-Romanée is one strand of the Leroy empire, along with Maison Leroy and Domaine d’Auvenay.