Benjamin Leroux Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru Les Hauts Jarrons 2019

Benjamin Leroux's connection to Beaune runs deeper than most négociants' — his parents ran a florist shop in the town, which is where he first met the legendary importer Becky Wasserman as a small child, long before he enrolled in the lycée viticole at fifteen and set off to work in Oregon, Bordeaux, and New Zealand ahead of his celebrated stint as régisseur at Domaine Comte Armand. Les Hauts Jarrons comes from a 0.75-hectare vineyard belonging to a close friend of his, planted in the early 1980s on the east-facing, sandy, well-draining clay-limestone soils of Mont Battois — a mid-slope site with views straight across to the Corton Grand Cru. Depending on the vintage, Leroux includes anywhere from a modest 5–10% up to a more generous 25% whole-cluster fruit from the best bunches on the sorting table, fermenting on ambient yeasts through a fifteen-day maceration before eighteen months in barrel with only a light touch of new oak — a hallmark of the restraint Burghound has called worthy of Henri Jayer's "spiritual heir."

The result is consistently one of the appellation's most compelling Premier Crus: dark cherry, raspberry, and bergamot mingle with crushed stone, violet, and a whisper of Earl Grey, all wrapped around fine, firm tannins and vibrant, well-judged acidity that carries through to a long, slightly minty finish. It's medium-bodied yet layered and complex, with real finesse and mineral drive that critics repeatedly single out relative to the village-level wine.