My Burgundy book which I adore has wines that need and demand time. I'm ok with that as are most of you. I would love to get more fruit forward producers, and as of now I have two (Cruchandeau and Girard, with Girard only being semi fruit forward and Cruchandeau needing time in non ripe vintages like 13 and 14) but I also know and believe I have a producer, Vincent Ledy, who has the same fruit quality and depth of fruit that Duroche, Galeyrand and Thomas Bouley have, except the fruit is not forward and the wines need time. The raw materials Vincent Ledy gets are among the best I've encountered in Burgundy. What is a wine that has potential but really is not fruit forward? It means, right now there is not huge fruit as the wine could be dominated by mineral, earth, structure. The fruit is there, but in a different form. Young, backwards, unyielding. But that does not mean that the fruit is never going to become fruit forward. It will. You just have to wait. They all come around and when they start showing huge fruit, usually that's along with some secondary aromas and flavors as well. Wine, especially from great vineyards, is meant to be aged. What better experience is there than opening a bottle you've been patiently aging for 10-15 years and it's a wonderful life enriching, life affirming experience? It's why we store wine. Why we cellar it. 2014 was, in my opinion Vincent Ledy's breakthrough vintage and he, only being 35, is still learning and becoming a better winemaker. He destroyed 2014 and this is the final two wines I'll offer. Vincent only sells wines that he deems are kind of ready to drink and he is always a vintage behind the rest of Burgundy. His 2014's, while being the best wines he has ever made, you will have to wait. The raw materials and fruit that Vincent has are something special. The guy is always working as hard as anyone I know and is a dreamer in a way in that nothing ever satisfies him and his personal drive for quality is nothing like I have ever seen. He is a brilliant winemaker and one of my personal favorites in the book. Only vintage that is somewhat ready to drink is 2010, and I did not offer those. Not the 11's, 12's and 13's. Or the 14's, which will be on offer today. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. It's a wonderful thing as once these peak and get ready to drink I truly believe the fruit will be so dramatic and awesome and deep it will turn Vincent into a superstar once his wines are mature. I taste then often and they are slowly coming out of their shells. Truly a marathon and not a race.
Up first I have the best wine Vincent has ever made. He said it. I said it. Everyone has said it. The 2014 Vincent Ledy Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru "Les Porrets St. Georges" Vieilles Vignes for $96.99 a bottle on a 3-pack. It's probably next to the Poisot RSV the best Red Burgundy I sell. And this wine needs extensive cellaring. With the 2014 vintage Vincent made this wine into two cuvees, separating the young vines and old vines. Earlier this year I sold the "Jeune Vigne" cuvee, which was the debut and now we have the big brother from 85+ year old vines picked at yields so low they would make Lalou Bize Leroy shake her head. Yields for this wine were only 12 hl/ha versus an average of 37 for NSG Premier Crus. This wine is a love letter and a tour de force in winemaking. It is a work of remarkable genius. Super fragrant nose. Like the best fragrance you can imagine. 13 was darker and had lower yields and more brooding. 14 has more lift to it and is a bit more evenly fruited between black, blue and red. Mashed black flowers and tons of stoney minerality. So floral. Violets, roses, just beguiling. But all of this is on a bed of stone. Limestone. There is also a confectionary aroma as well that envelops the black cherries and blackberries. But there is also a red fruit quality that intermingles as well. I also get a iron/graphite mineral/ore component. The aromas are just off the chart. The wine is flat out brilliant. It is so deep. I once compared Ledy's style to the great Henri Gouges and this is the wine that made me think Gouges as soon as I smelled it. This is one of the most expensive direct wines I offer, but I offer it because there is nothing like it in Burgundy or Nuits St. Georges. The wine is an elixir in that the care and love that Vincent puts into it is second to none. You can taste it. The wine is always opening and changing. You see Vincent's artistry here as he uses no new barrels in this wine and the character of the great 1er Cru site "Les Porrets Saint-Georges" shines through. This is naked Burgundy at its finest. The crisp, clean, fresh and super naked terroir driven character of 2014 shines through in this wine. The palate has amazing richness and density and the power and density of the site and the old vine sap are apparent in spades. Yet it is so crisp and fresh. I love 2014. A true Burg lover's vintage. Like 2001. The inner mouth aromas are some of the best I've encountered. It takes over every nook and cranny of your mouth like nothing I've ever had. It's almost like an invasion of Pinot Noir in your mouth. The tannins are firm and the energy on the palate is second to none. The freshness and acid combined wish the density, length and richness are some of the best I've encountered. This is a holy crap OMG wine. It's a wine I hope to cellar every vintage.
Up next is the 2014 Vincent Ledy Savigny Les Beaune for as little as $34.99 a bottle on a 4-pack. This is the best of his wines that are not NSG 1er Cru. I can hands down say this is my favorite village SLB out there, but man does it need age and air. Through 3 tiers, this wine would cost $50 and it would be well worth it - it's best in class. Ledy's 2014 Savigny has a gorgeous nose of stoney, mineral dark berry fruits; beautiful aromas that have serious gusto. Big, and I mean big palate, that needs 2-3-4-5 hours to aerate, but once it does you have a wine that is like, "What if Henri Gouges made Savigny Les Beaune?" It is incredibly muscular and dense with extraordinary body and intensity. The fruit is dense and vivid like no other. Chewy and complex but so much more to show. The balance of all the parts is something to behold. This is exquisite wine with some serious raw power. The concentration, raw power, just this short of sweet earthy fruit and a haunting confectionary quality make this an astonishing wine. Buy as much as you can as it won't be enough. This can age 20 years.
When you visit Vincent Ledy, there is no reason to ever ask him what he did that day. You can ask him which vine he was working on, but there is no reason to ask what he did. He lives in the vineyards and lives for his vines. That is why his wines are stunning examples of their terroir.
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