Description
Domaine Vincent Ledy, Chorey-Lès-Beaune “Les Beaumonts”
Burgundy is home to perhaps the greatest concentration of winemaking talent in the world, so when a young producer’s name is on the lips of every fellow sommelier and vigneron there, we take scrupulous notes. These days, that name is Vincent Ledy.
The moment we tasted his 2018 Chorey-Lès-Beaune “Les Beaumonts,” we immediately fought to secure a tranche of any size, since his annual production is drastically smaller than virtually all of his neighbors. Oozing with juicy, dark berry fruit and framed by a chiseled mineral depth that puts many Premier Cru Pommards/Beaunes to shame, it’s an object lesson in the synergistic marriage of pure terroir and classically trained talent. Raring to go thanks to the warm vintage but primed to evolve for at least a decade, this is a stunning, massively undervalued Pinot Noir. It seems everyone now looks at the stratospheric pricing of red Burgundy collectibles and bemoans “if only I’d been there at the beginning.” Well, today’s your chance to make it so!
Vincent Ledy is a member of Burgundy’s new generation—farmers without family winemaking history, driven to the bleeding edge by passion for this special place. From the start, Vincent has been near-maniacal in his pursuit of perfection. He began his estate in 2007 but didn’t release his first wine until 2013. He earned his chops at the estimable Domaine Lécheneaut before setting up shop in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Ledy is not a Burgundy domaine coasting on the reputation of world-famous Premier and Grand Crus, centered as it is around holdings in Chorey, Savigny, and Hautes-Cotes de Nuits. But the show stopping quality coming out of here frankly has us questioning the entire Burgundy hierarchy.
Vincent has been a perfectionist from the start. No new oak has ever entered his cellar, and he acquires every used barrel from a single source. Besides a few plots he’s planted himself, every vineyard he works with is at least 40 years old. He farms every inch of his 3.5 hectares organically, even employing horses in some of his plots. Although not a household name amongst Côte-de-Beaune insiders, “Les Beaumonts” in Chorey-Lès-Beaune is regarded as one of the best lieux-dits in the village. Thanks to heavier clay soil interspersed with limestone pebbles, it produces wines with more depth and density than is typical for the village. Vincent uses a majority of whole clusters, never acidifies or chaptalizes, and ages the wine in neutral French barrels, untouched, for 18 months before bottling. The results are simply some of the finest village-level Burgundy on the market.
It might only be $50, but I suggest treating Ledy’s “Les Beaumonts” as you would a bottle costing twice as much. Serve it with a slight chill around 60 degrees in Burgundy stems, and cook a meal around it. It pours a luminous ruby with hints of crimson. The nose screams out of the glass with concentrated black cherry, crushed black raspberry, red plum, mulberry, violets, black tea, fresh potting soil, and classic mushroom stock notes. The palate is densely packed, medium in body with just-right acidity and a core of finely-etched minerality providing focus. It somehow brilliantly straddles the line between charming and serious: Gobs of fresh fruit make it perfect for drinking now, yet a deeply serious core sets it up for a long slumber in your cellar. Whether you drink it now or in a decade, though, I suggest going deep. Ledy will be a Burgundy collectible, and it will be more expensive in due time. Mark my words!
