467: Benjamin Leroux Explains How Winemaking in Burgundy Has Changed and Why It Will Change Again

I'll Drink to That! Wine Talk

Levi Dalton

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4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2019

⏱️ 108 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Benjamin Leroux is the proprietor of the Benjamin Leroux winery located in the town of Beaune, in the Burgundy region of France.

Benjamin explains how although his family was not in the wine business, he found himself working in a winery at a young age. He discusses his internships outside of Burgundy, at wineries in Oregon and Bordeaux, before talking about his start as the head winemaker at Comte Armand in the 1990s. Benjamin describes in detail the winemaking techniques he was using to make wine in Pommard during the nineties, and contrasts that with how he makes wine today and for the last several years at his own winery, also named Benjamin Leroux. He discusses what prompted him to make changes to his winemaking, and explains that every vintage must be approached as its own. Along the way, Benjamin addresses topics like hedging, organic farming, whole cluster, infusion vs. extration, and reduction. He also talks about some key vineyard areas of Burgundy, comparing and contrasting Vosne-Romanée with Gevrey-Chambertin, as well as Morey-Saint-Denis, and Chambolle-Musigny. Benjamin further talks about some appellations that he is particularly drawn to, like Blagny and Saint-Romain, as well as grape varieties like Aligoté.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.
0:05.1	I'm Levy Dalton.
0:06.1	I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Ben l'rue of Benjamin l'rue based in Bone and Burgundy. Hello sir, how are you?
0:28.8	Hello, very good, Lady. It's nice to see you. So you have a winery in bone now, but you actually grew up in bone as well.
0:35.0	Yeah, I haven't moved very far actually. I grew up in bone, was born there in 1975. My family is attached to bone, but family had absolutely no
0:48.3	vineyards, but my parents had a flower shop. So I started the wine school in Boone in 1990, I was just 15.
0:59.8	And with the wine school you need to do a bit of apprenticeship.
1:04.0	It's not much, but I think the first year was like nine weeks,
1:08.0	so harvest time, pruning time,
1:11.0	you know to see a bit of all the work which are going around the vineyards and
1:15.0	as I've got two older brother you know we're like going out into town
1:21.5	Pascal Marchant was also liking to go out in town so they knew each other.
1:26.1	They were all friends and when it happens but I was looking for an estate Pascal was
1:30.8	said straight away yes.
1:38.0	Meeting Pascal, it definitely like Brangley's passion. Pascal arrived in Burgundy in 1985.
1:41.0	Because he's from Quebec.
1:42.0	He's from Quebec, He's from Quebec.
1:43.0	He was probably looking for himself in Quebec and decided with two friends to go and do harvest
1:49.4	in Burgundy because it was seems fun.
1:51.7	They did like wine at the time and went to do harvest and then he met
1:58.9	his first wife and he never left. So not coming from a wine background, done a year of quick studies at Bonn College,
2:10.0	and then the Contingrad was looking for someone and he was there.
	...

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