The Leroy 2008 Pommard Les Vignots displays a vivacity throughout that is quite vintage-typical but in my experience rare at this address. Smoked meat and rich marrow lend a strikingly carnal cast. Cherry pit and marine minerality lead to a dynamic finishing interchange of invigorating bitterness and salinity against a refined, transparent, and downright refreshing layering of red berry and meat. This ought to be worth following for at least the next dozen years. Lalou Bize-Leroy reports average 2008 Pinot Noir yields of 13 hectoliters per hectare, almost absurdly tiny even by her singular standards. Malos were a bit later than usual but were finished by summer, and the wines bottled – as usual – in December. Yet – also as usual – if their development was thereby in any way stunted, you certainly won’t detect it in the bottle today! The best of these display a sense of transparency; levity; and – even when rich and head-spinningly complex – a sheer sense of refreshment and invigoration that I have seldom encountered in other great wines from these sister estates. (Please note that my account of the complete 2007 red collection at Leroy was published in issue #189.) Importer: Martine’s Wines. Novato, CA; tel. (415) 883-040