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Richard Leroy

It was yet another pleasantly warm afternoon when I jumped into my car ready to head over to meet Richard Leroy. Having checked out his address online using Google Maps, I had soon spotted the required road, which snaked out of the top of Rablay-sur-Layon, the buildings gradually giving way to vines. It seemed obvious to me that one of the miniature houses and associated vineyards on the screen in front of me must be Leroy's property, and so I felt pretty sure that I knew where I was going. Twenty minutes later that confidence had evaporated somewhat. Richard Leroy's address stated he lived at number 52, but this property is not nestled amongst a sweeping vineyard of tightly-pruned Chenin Blanc vines above the village, as I expected, but is in fact much closer to the centre of the village, with not a vine in sight. And what was of greater concern was that, despite ringing the doorbell at the agreed time of 5pm, there was no answer.

Rather than loitering outside the property I wandered up the street a few hundred metres, stopping to admire the little chapel that sits there at a fork in the road. At the front was an effigy of Christ on the cross, cast in metal, perhaps two or three metres high. At the base of this sculpture his feet were enveloped by the coiled body of a large and malevolent snake; this was a rather macabre interpretation of the crucifixion. As I pondered what went through the mind of the artist as he moulded his vision, other than perhaps a large volume of absinthe, a small blue combi-van - the vehicle of choice for all small-scale French vignerons - whizzed past, at the wheel a large clean-shaven man, with one female passenger. They came to a sudden halt in the distance, just outside Leroy's residence; the man emerged and bounded towards the row of houses, although exactly which house he entered was impossible for me to see, as some trees and shrubs obscured the view. Could it have been Leroy? Possibly, but doesn't Leroy have a beard? He certainly did when I met him in Angers earlier this year. But beards can come and go, of course. I concluded that Leroy was a possible identity for the suspect and that I should certainly investigate, just in time to see man's frame reappear momentarily, before slipping into the van and accelerating away.

From my vantage-point up near the chapel I walked back down the road to the house, and rang the doorbell once more. Still no answer, but happily my search for Leroy was soon to be over. Minutes later the man pulled up in the combi-van again, this time devoid of passenger. The introductions were brief but at least they were certain; this was definitely Leroy. And he apologised, he knew I had been waiting. Even as he had sped back into the village the first time his employee had commented that she had spotted un anglais loitering by the chapel. Is my nationality that easy to spot from a distance? If so, let's hope it is down to my stiff upper lip and noble poise, rather than my pasty tourist's complexion and ill-fitting "holiday shorts". On refection, it is probably more the latter than the former. Indeed, I might as well have worn a knotted handkerchief on my head.

Up Into the Vineyards

I climbed into the front passenger seat alongside Richard and we drove out through the village, in the opposite direction to that of the chapel. In less than a minute we had crossed the Layon, flowing on to the west underneath the little bridge, and in just a minute more we were bumping and jolting our way through the vineyards. This seemed like a good moment to get some background on Richard, his origins and how he came to be a vigneron in the Loire Valley, a region within which many would contend there are no finer dry expressions of Chenin Blanc than those found chez Leroy.

Richard does not originate from a family of vignerons, and he came to viticulture by an unusual but vey determined route. In the early 1990s he was employed in banking, in Paris, and he was lapping up the greatest wines of France - from Burgundy, Bordeaux and beyond - at the Grains Nobles tasting club. But it was the discovery of Chenin Blanc, in particular Coteaux du Layon, together with his friendship with Joël Ménard of Domaine des Sablonettes, that was to tempt him from banking into viticulture. It was in 1992 that he discovered Ménard's wines, and the friendship that developed was mutually beneficial. Joël had all the viticultural experience anyone could have wanted, but not the tasting experience to match Richard's years spent getting acquainted with the likes of Latour, DRC, Yquem and so on. As the two spent more time together Richard absorbed as much of Joël's knowledge of vines and viticulture that he could, and eventually the two agreed that Richard should buy some vines. But he was adamant that only the best terroir would do. In 1996 he found that vineyard, Les Noëls de Montbenault, the very plot of vines to which we were now heading in Richard's little van.

So now Richard was a vigneron, part-time at least, although Joël had a constant presence during the first three years as Richard struggled to juggle his various commitments, using his holidays to come back to Rablay-sur-Layon and tend to his vines. Just two years after his vineyard purchase he acquired a little house, where we had met just minutes before, and two years after that, in 2000, he and his family moved there permanently. The same year he acquired his only other vineyard, the Clos de Rouliers, a smaller plot than Noëls de Montbenault.

From Liquoreux to Sec

When he started off in 1996 Richard's experience at Grains Nobles told him that Chenin Blanc came in liquoreux form only, and he had no true concept of dry Chenin Blanc as a wine of quality. He regarded Anjou Sec as the dustbin of the Coteaux du Layon, a dumping ground for grapes of inadequate ripeness or sweetness to make the moelleux and liquoreux cuvées for which the region was justly famous. But there was a problem; although pleased with the quality of his wines, especially as 1996 and 1997 were very favourable vintages for sweet wines, the quantity was small. Richard's wife Sophie was now - as Richard himself had once done - working in a bank, but it was still a struggle to make ends meet. Looking around for advice, in 1998 Richard came across Marc Angeli and his dry cuvées, and he quickly realised that the dustbin analogy was perhaps not appropriate in all cases. Nevertheless, he soldiered on with the sweeter style, but in more difficult years the books became even more difficult to balance. In 1999, for example, he produced only five barrels of wine.

The following year he elected to follow a different path, but still adhering to the quality mantra he had developed. The pruning was hard, the yields low, the fruit ripe and concentrated, and as a result he made his first dry wine. And there was an added bonus; perhaps influenced by Angeli, Richard was increasingly wishing to scale back his use of sulphur, a foolhardy undertaking with sugar-rich moelleux styles which provide plenty of nourishment for any residual microorganisms, but a much more realistic expectation with drier cuvées, devoid of any significant degree of residual sugar. The ball continued to roll in subsequent vintages; in 2001 he produced a dry wine from Clos des Rouliers, and a mix of sec and moelleux from Noëls de Montbenault. In subsequent years this mix continued, but today his wines are exclusively dry, although still very rich; free of botrytis (which can sometimes be found in other 'dry' Anjou wines) but with an oak élevage, these are powerful wines which need time in the cellar to show their best I think.

The Vineyards

We walked amongst the 2 hectares of vines in Noëls de Montbenault for a while; the terroir here is metamorphosed sandstone and rhyolite, a durable volcanic rock, the soils themselves soft and crumbly in the hand. Many of the vines are quite young, Richard having replanted about 20% of the vineyard in 2002 in order to replace dead vines. Over in the Clos des Rouliers there are 0.7 hectares of vines planted on a terroir of grey schist, a very friable stone; Richard gave a good demonstration of the differing characteristics of these two rocks later in the day when we returned to his house. The stone-built wall at the front of his property includes these two stones, among many other types. The schist flakes away easily with a rub of the hand, the rhyolite not at all.

The vineyards are 100% planted to Chenin Blanc of course, pruned according to the individual vine in question, with many of Richard's young vines only giving three bunches and small ones at that, although better established vines may be a little more productive. He typically aims for yields of about 25 hl/ha, and work in the vineyard is biodynamic (he has Ecocert certification); these two go together, says Richard, who states that "biodynamic principles demand 'old-fashioned' yields". He harvests by hand, in parcels, another practice which he says helps to keep yields down, before transport to his house just a very short distance away. Aiming for 'correct' yields can bring problems though; with no buffer against the occasionally destructive forces of nature Richard sometimes brings in a very small harvest, such as in 2008 when the inclement weather reduced the yields to a paltry 3 hl/ha for Noëls de Montbenault and 5 hl/ha for the Clos des Rouliers

The Loire Garagiste

Returning to Richard's house in Rablay-sur-Layon he quizzed me on recent developments in the UK Premier League; he has no discernible words of English, but his vocabulary does stretch as far as "Chelsea", "Manchester United" and "UEFA Champions League" it seems. Unfortunately I wasn't able to satisfy his desire for information; if only I had brought my football-fanatic eldest son along!

Arriving back at Richard's abode I was admitted to the garage, where a little over 30 barrels were stacked two-high. It doesn't look that dissimilar to the old cellars at Le Pin, although on an even smaller scale; it is functional rather than grand, and there are a similar number of barrels per harvest. It is a garagiste operation, or at least I was - since I visited Richard has acquired new premises, just a short distance further down the street where he lives. Fermentation here is en barrique, plot by plot, with the Clos des Rouliers and Noëls de Montbenault vineyards divided into two and four separate plots respectively. Only indigenous yeasts are employed for the ferment, and although this isn't a sulphur-free domaine Richard has reduced its use to a comfortable minimum. In barrel before us was the 2009 vintage (11 barrels from Clos des Rouliers and 22 from Noëls de Montbenault), currently free of sulphur. Its use is most likely with bottling, although not always, although the 2008 vintage - a very difficult vintage for Leroy marked by a ridiculously low yields, as noted above - was protected with 2 g/hl. The wine usually goes into bottle after one year in barrel, in order to make way for the next vintage, although Richard now has more room to work with this may well change.

Richard carefully listened in to each barrel, checking to see if the fermentation had finished, before he drew a sample. Everything is done by sight, sound and of course taste at this domaine, with very little use of technical analysis, except where it is demanded by a particular export market. Once he is happy with the wines everything is blended together in the cellar, with no selection; as Leroy says, "the selection occurs in the vineyard". The result is therefore just two cuvées representing the two terroirs he exploits, Clos des Rouliers and Noëls de Montbenault, both usually bottled under the Anjou appellation although without an agrément in some recent vintages, including 2008 and 2009, these vintages are labelled as Vin de Table.

I tasted everything Richard could produce from his cellar, all the components of the 2009 vintage which would eventually be blended (and I have subsequently tasted the final assemblage at the 2011 Renaissance tasting in Angers), as well as a selection of older vintages from both climats. There is no other way to convey my strong feelings about this vigneron and what he bottles other than to state that these are truly stunning wines. They are rich and golden, but well defined, with a crunchy acidity to them which provides a fresh backbone to them. There are vintage differences, the 2005s more powerful and demanding time, the 2006s brighter and a little more accessible for example, but they are in fact quite subtle. We also looked at wines from 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008, and I have since revisited many of these vintages at home, having added a number of bottles to my cellar. What I find very notable is the strong consistency that runs through the wines, whether the vintage was hot and dry, or wet and dreary, the wines all show a fine definition and delicious vibrancy in the mouth. This is the mark of a great domaine I think, a name that you can trust regardless of what travails the climate might have thrown their way during the growing season. These are clearly some of the very best wines of Anjou, if not the best of all. To my mind Richard Leroy should be ranked alongside the very top vignerons of the Loire, alongside the Foucault frères, Noël Pinguet and others. Any lesser opinion of the man and his wines, in my opinion, would be well wide of the mark. (8/2/11)

Contact details:
Address: 52 Grande Rue, Rablay-sur-Layon
Telephone: +33 (0) 2 41 78 51 84
Fax: +33 (0) 2 41 78 51 84

Richard Leroy - Tasting Notes

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Les Rouliers

Richard Leroy Les Rouliers (Vin de France) 2009: Bottled as a VdF rather than AC Anjou, therefore 'Les Rouliers' rather than 'Clos des Rouliers'. A lovely freshness on the nose here, lightly crystalline, fresh and slightly floral. Good substance on the palate, light-footed though, with some appealing perfumed fruit. There is a lovely tangible core to it, a vein of grippy extract running right through the middle of the wine. Overall very attractive, composed and capable of good things in the cellar I'm sure. 17/20 (January 2011)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Les Noëls de Montbenault (Vin de France) 2009: This wine has a lovely honeyed expression on the nose, with a very pure style to it. On the palate it starts off beautifully honed and polished, showing a well defined bite with good framing acidity too. Its feel is superb, a wine of gorgeous breadth with a fine, open perfume. Brightly composed, with a long and substantial finish. This is very impressive; definitely a must for the cellar. 18.5/20 (January 2011)

Other Wines

The following tasting notes are for the 2009 components from barrel. As such I have not scored these wines, nor provided wine-searcher links.

Clos des Rouliers #1 2009: Very open, pretty and floral. Good structure on the palate, well-framed. Fresh and yet substantial. There is an attractive spice to it. Very appealing, with the fresh aromatics the most valuable aspect here I think. (July 2010)

Clos des Rouliers #2 2009: This has more apparent fruit than the first sample, and on the palate it combines a fine layer of fruit richness with depth of character, backed up by wonderful acidity. This should make a fine backbone for the 2009 vintage. (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault #1 2009: The first of four samples from this parcel, this has a fabulous presence on the nose, open and exuberant. Great structure on the palate, wonderful freshness but also plenty of substance. Good young-Chenin fruit, but with a supple and rounded depth. A superb wine in itself. (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault #2 2009: This is the young vines component of the blend. This has been in new oak and this does show through on the nose, with very high-toned elements here. A much brighter style than the first on the palate, with pretty fruit, although there is still plenty of substance and structure on the palate. (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault #3 2009: This component is sourced from the vines next to the road. Another component that has been raised in new oak. This wine clearly has great vigour, with vibrant fruit and plenty of vitality in the mouth. An excellent sample considering these vines have only been producing a few years. (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault #4 2009: This is from the central, very stony part of the vineyard. This is certainly very different to the preceding two cuvées, showing a much more reserved and powerfully structured character. Broad, rich and yet well-defined. Another fine candidate for the backbone of the wine. (July 2010)

Les Rouliers

Richard Leroy Les Rouliers (Vin de France) 2008: Refused the agrément in this vintage so bottled under the new Vin de France designation. A lovely, very elegant style on the nose, with a very restrained character. Fine, lightly honeyed and very defined style on the palate, fresh stylish and very well balanced. Beautifully restrained flesh throughout, building in character, but always showing a very linear, well defined composition. It has a degree of fat it the mouth, but it seems appropriate and it sits very well within the frame of the wine. Good wine. 16.5/20 (February 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Les Noëls de Montbenault (Vin de France) 2008: An incredible nose here, full of powerful and crystalline, crunchy yet rich fruit. The palate is no less impressive; there are elements of honey (yet this is quite dry), perhaps coming from the intense, sweet fruit-ripeness, along with notes of liquorice (from the barrels I suspect). Great purity though, and certainly rich in minerality. Superb. 18.5/20 (July 2010)

Richard Leroy Les Noëls de Montbenault (Vin de France) 2008: Refused the agrément in this vintage so bottled under the new Vin de France designation. A fine nose here, broad and characterful. Lots of depth to it, with the aromas of pears and sweet apple, primary fruit notes, yet it is still clearly defined. The palate is fabulous, very expressive, with lots of rounded character and presence. In the midpalate it shows some grip before rolling into a beautiful, sweet-sappy finish. A great wine which should give bags of pleasure. 18/20 (February 2010)

Clos des Rouliers

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Clos des Rouliers 2007: A pale golden hue. Very pure, golden fruit on the nose, bright and fresh, nothing of the oak that the Noëls de Montbenault displayed when tasted alongside. Somewhat ethereal and nebulous. On the palate though, some superb tension and presence immediately apparent on entry, and this remains the case through the midpalate and into the finish. There is richness and body, but also a very pure, fine, defined minerally acidity. Immensely characterful, wonderfully tense, amazing purity and a vibrant laser-beam backbone into the finish. Superb, and with great length, filled with an intense, tingling grip. This is excellent; there is so much tension and vibrancy here I have to consider this the equal of Noëls de Montbenault in this vintage. 18/20 (February 2011)

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Clos des Rouliers 2007: The yield this year was around 19 hl/ha, a poor growing season with a summer marred by storms and wet weather, although both September and October were beautiful, saving the vintage. The nose shows a honeyed sweetness of fruit, with vanilla and liquorice perhaps from the oak again. The impact on the palate is very fine, polished, with liquorice-laced fruit and a wonderful structure. Great style here. 18/20 (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2007: A deliciously rich golden hue in the glass. And the nose is beautifully expressive, rich and with a dried-golden fruit character, ripe and seemingly quite solid, and still enshrouded by oak. And the character on the palate reflects this, although the oak and considerable substance of the wine, and the grippy tannic backbone is more than balanced out by the ultimate vibrancy and purity of the fruit. It is lifted, crunchy-crystalline in style, with all the life that a wine would need to absorb the oak and substantially develop. Wonderful now though - the broad and vivacious substance in the mouth, even set against the solid underpinnings, gives it a delicious composition. 18/20 (February 2011)

Clos des Rouliers

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Clos des Rouliers 2006: A touch more colour than I seem to recall here, an undeniable lemon-gold hue. It still has that unparalleled dried-fruit character with its golden streaks, with honey and toast nuances that hark back to the oak in Leroy's cellar. The palate has a deliciously supple feel at first, quickly opening up to show a pithy structure with piles of grip and more than a hint of tannin, encasing rich flavours of golden fruits, almonds, acacia, pear and white peach. Later there is even a little sweet but fibrous pineapple. There is plenty of spice, mineral and acid as well though, as previously noted, although it is well hidden by the sheer substance of the wine. Enticing, savoury, and very long in the finish too. This is excellent wine, with continued potential. From a Loire 2006 tasting. 17/20 (May 2012)

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Clos des Rouliers 2006: A very pale lemon-golden hue to this wine, which on the nose has a fresh and slowly unfolding character, showing nuances of crystalline dried-golden fruit with a dry, straw-like character and more than a hint of evolving freshly-baked gingerbread. The palate slowly relaxes into a soft, rich, broad character, showing great flesh but also a very firm minerality and acidity beneath it all. Through the middle it reveals, with close examination, a very taut and polished character, savoury and vigorous, with great force but also a warm, plush and deliciously characterful presence. And it has length too. 16.5/20 (February 2011)

Richard Leroy Anjou Clos des Rouliers 2006: This wine was first up; it started off with a very rich nose, all dried fruit, although with time in the glass it took on a more delineated, finer style. It never showed a huge or heady character, but lots of good acidity, good grip, with a slightly bitter note to the finish, which I liked. With more time, a much more open and accessible style was evident, with a more autumnal character to the fruit on the nose. Overall, this is very good. Tasted at Le Petit Comptoir. 16.5+/20 (February 2009)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2006: A rich golden hue, a little deeper than the Clos de Rouliers, but still with an appealing and shimmering appeal. A touch more forceful on the nose too, rich in intense golden fruits, with a blend of citrus and stone fruit, pears and sweet apples. And on the palate, a wonderfully pithy depth, structured and grippy and yet also broad, expansive, savoury and deep. And underpinning it all, and taking it a clear step above the Close de Rouliers, is the thick seam of minerality that runs through it, appearing in the midpalate and coming to a fine, focused, needle like precision on the finish. Held in the mouth, this shows a glorious depth and focus. There are complex tinges too, even little hints of bacon and peach juice. A remarkable combination of structure and subtle seduction. Great wine. From a Loire 2006 tasting. 18/20 (May 2012)

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2006: A fairly bold, golden glow in the glass. And on the nose, although very soft and diffuse at first, there appear aromas of needle-like, crystal-tinged autumnal fruits, both sweetly sherbetty and yet sourly perfumed at the same time. It has a rich mix of apple and pear compote with a glassy, sugar-crusted brûlée coating, occasionally spiked with notes of bitter peach skin and sweet each juice. The palate brings multiple but fleeting impressions, at times broad and rich, at times showing more of the crystalline structure underneath, the two coming together making for a fascinating, balanced and impressive wine. With a fine structure, solid fruit lifted by moments of perfume, and plenty of grip that just demands to be left alone in the cellar for many years, this is just superb. 17.5/20 (February 2011)

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2006: Leroy feels this was a great vintage for this vineyard, with healthy fruit in great condition. There were 11 barrels filled in this vintage, with 5 new. The nose shows a wonderful honeyed richness. On the palate, liquorice again, but also some broad development here, with notes of spice and mint, also a floral element, and yet there is still an amazing substance and structure to it. Great acidity, and a fine length too. Wonderful wine. 18.5/20 (July 2010)

Clos des Rouliers

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Clos des Rouliers 2005: A pale golden hue here. On the nose this starts off with soft and autumnal fruits, sweet pears and apples, tinged with honey. The fruit has a fresh and almost crystalline character, but more than this there is a soft and rich style to it that dominates. This is rich, broad, very deep and concentrated, a attractively perfumed and sweet with intense apple fruit. And when I say intense, I mean intense, sprinkled with floral, beeswax, white peach complexities. It is quite primary still, with quite a lot of grip to it, substantial and full, leading into a big and firm finish, the structure never once out of keeping with the flesh of the wine, showing a pure, defined, exciting and dynamic composition when the temperature is right. Overall this is impressive but very young, still showing a little primary character, and thus clearly demanding time in the cellar. Great wine. From a Loire 2005 assessment. 17.5+/20 (January 2011)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2005: This wine originates from the larger of Leroy's vineyards, very close to his home in Rablay-sur-Layon. In the glass it has a moderately rich golden hue, giving immediate pleasure, although the nose takes a good hour or so to follow suit, slowly opening up from its initially closed-down state. There are elements of crystalline golden fruits here, suggestions of white truffle too, with rather appealing touches of sandy mineraliness. The style is direct, well honed, linear, although there is still a tinge of oak showing. Great tension and direction immediately on the palate though, remaining very tight and pulled-in through the midpalate and finish, just releasing a little soft fruit character at the very end. Rich although rather taut, with a high-toned fruit character at the finish. This is packed with substance, structure and potential, although it all seems a bit tight right now. It plainly needs time in the cellar. Given appropriate time though, this should be great. From a Loire 2005 assessment. 18+/20 (January 2011)

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2005: A warm vintage, reports Leroy, the wine well set-up for the future although not necessarily at its best now. He found it to be better when it was younger; today it is quite closed up, and he anticipates it will be much better in ten years time. A big style, nevertheless I find it expansive and accessible on the nose. The palate is rich and forceful, smoothly polished, with a remarkable concentration of spice. Rich and fat but not blowsy, still showing traces of liquorice here, a remarkable vin de garde. 18+/20 (July 2010)

Other Wines

Vin de Sophie et François 2005: Not a commercialised wine, but rather a private cuvée made by Leroy together with two of his friends who acquired a very small parcel, just 0.3 hectares, of ancient vines more than a century old right in the heart of Rablay-sur-Layon. This was the first vintage, and each year there is just one barrel produced. Zero sulphur. The nose shows good fruit, and the palate an attractive Chenin style, dry and grippy, quite reserved in fact, with good grip and more than a hint of minerality. It comes in very handy for family celebrations, I am told. 17/20 (July 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2004: A gorgeous colour in the glass, a golden hue, although a clean one that suggests richness and concentration rather than oxidation or premature age. Thankfully this impression carries through onto the nose and palate; there is a beautiful array of aromas generated here, multilayered, with honey and beeswax at the surface, golden pear fruit underneath, then tinges of sweet caramel, coffee and angelica. There is still a little residual wood showing, and in fact there is also a lightly oxidative streak coming through as a sweet and heady scent of nutty whisky mash, rather reminiscent of aging Bollinger - as the temperature is allowed to rise a little - so this certainly isn't a negative point, in my opinion at least. There is a savoury concentration, dry and structured underneath the exotic but tightly bound upper layers. Great substance on the palate, peppery and spicy behind the rich texture, but always dry and well framed. Lemony acid behind it all, and plenty of grip. And it is very long and full of spice. Stunning wine. For label images and more see my Wine of the Week write-up. 17.5+/20 (October 2010)

Les Noëls de Montbenault

Richard Leroy Anjou Blanc Noëls de Montbenault 2003: A vintage marked by unrelenting heat, Leroy seems quite proud that this wine was, he reports, the only true sec cuvée produced in Anjou that year. The nose is rich with honey and smoke, and shows incredible density, and the seam of liquorice running through the younger vintages has now disappeared. The palate has the big style that I expected, with moderate acidity (which in itself is impressive) becoming less subdued in the finish, but also lots of structured grip leading through into a long finish. It has somewhere between 13.7 and 13.9% alcohol. It is certainly a success, although I find it less crystalline and minerally than many of the younger wines. 17+/20 (July 2010)