Benjamin Leroux Gevrey-Chambertin 2020

Benjamin Leroux's path to becoming one of Burgundy's most respected names started early — enrolled in viticultural school at just fifteen, he went on to work at Cos d'Estournel in Bordeaux, Domaine Drouhin in Oregon, and Louis Jadot in Beaune, before being named technical director and régisseur at Domaine Comte Armand in Pommard at the age of twenty-four, a role he held for fifteen vintages. He founded his own négociant in 2007, sharing a cellar with Dominique Lafon, and has since built a reputation — some call him the natural successor to Henri Jayer — for finding exceptional, underrated terroir and treating it with real precision. This Gevrey-Chambertin comes from two hectares of vines planted between 1935 and 1995 across several well-regarded lieux-dits, including Les Seuvrées just below Charmes-Chambertin and La Justice, a well-draining sandy site over solid limestone, along with fruit sourced from Brochon. Farmed under lutte raisonnée, the wine sees around 10% whole-cluster inclusion, a fifteen-day maceration on indigenous yeasts, and eighteen months in barrel with a modest 20% new oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The result is classic, precise Gevrey with real charm: dark cherry, raspberry, and brambly red berry fruit sit alongside earthy spice, forest floor, and a savoury edge of crushed rock. The palate is structured yet elegant, with fine tannins, lifted acidity, and a persistent, delineated finish that critics have consistently praised for its tension and quality-per-dollar — this is village Gevrey that regularly outperforms its classification. It's tightly wound on release and rewards a few years of patience, drinking beautifully from around 2028 onward in recent vintages.