2015 Benjamin Leroux, Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, Aux Boudots

The 2015 Nuits Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Boudots has a clean and precise bouquet, quite intense with blackberry, crushed strawberry and crushed violet scents, the whole bunch component barely recognizable. The palate is medium-bodied with a ripe core of black plum and blackcurrant fruit, a generous pinch of white pepper with a structured, quite dense finish suggesting that it will be a long-term proposition. This is a sublime offering from Benjamin Leroux.

(a new wine for Leroux; racked three weeks before my visit): Good bright red. Black cherry and a violet quality on the nose. Sweet, silky wine with lovely finesse of texture and terrific mineral grip. A note of black pepper provides added lift. Sappy without being sweet, with harmonious acidity energizing the middle palate. Still a touch of unabsorbed sulfur here but this very firm wine finishes with a subtle sweetness and noteworthy length.

Transparent cherry red. Rather occluded nose. Pretty evident tannins. Unformed. It may well develop into something much more expressive but for the moment it's a little unreadable with a raw finish. (JR)