2006 Clos de la Roche

Roasted meat and quarry dust mingle with ripe, lightly-cooked strawberry and cherry in the nose of the Leroy 2006 Clos De La Roche. Creamy, gently soothing, and generously broad and sweetly-fruited in a manner one doesn't anticipate from its site, this Pinot's mineral and animal dimensions only strongly reassert themselves in the long, strikingly buoyant finish, along with black tea, distilled essences of red berries, and peat. This is one of many wines of its collection almost certain to gain in nuance and allure with a few years in bottle, although it is frankly irresistible now. The results achieved by Lalou Bize-Leroy in 2006 are all the more notable in view of the misgivings she expressed early on about this vintage. (And, as her reaction to 2004 demonstrates, she will not shy away from declassifying even her entire production if she feels that the wines are not up to their terroir pedigrees.) As voluptuously rich as are Bize-Leroy's 2006 reds, they preserve the sense of buoyancy and elegance common to so many of the standouts of this vintage, and one's gums will not come away fatigued by the strength of underlying tannin or the near-hyper-concentration displayed by her – to be sure awesome – 2005s. As every year, these wines represent meticulous vine manicure; miniscule yields ("above all regulated by severe pruning, not triage," Bize-Leroy emphasizes); and fidelity to biodynamic methods and metaphysics; and were bottled in the second December following the harvest. Despite their winsomeness, they have long life expectancies. Since, however, I have very little experience of their predecessors as they have matured, I have confined my prognostication to a few isolated and very general comments in the tasting notes that follow. Note that I have included as well under the heading "Leroy" the wines of Madame Bize-Leroy's Domaine d'Auvenay – its cellars located outside Saint-Romain – which now encompass two appellations in red, since inevitably when information is being sought about these wines, and even often when they are described, it is under the name "Leroy." Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040

Good medium red. Highly nuanced, soil-driven aromas of strawberry, flinty minerality, roasted herbs and crushed rocks. Powerful and stunningly pure, with explosive fruit framed and complicated by pungent minerality and high notes of pepper and spice. This extremely primary wine boasts outstanding precision but is almost brutal today. The tannins reach the incisors on the extremely long and tactile finish.