This was the best bottle that I've encountered of Leroy's 1999 Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru, unfurling in the glass with a deep and complex bouquet of dark berry fruit, cassis, smoked meats, rose petals, candied peel and sweet spices. Full-bodied, velvety and immensely concentrated, it's seamless and multidimensional, built around an elegantly muscular chassis of velvety tannin and a lively spine of acidity, concluding with a sapid and expansive finish.

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It's quite curious but the strong oak toast that dominated the nose of the last bottle I tried was almost non-existent in this one, allowing the still discreet Vosne spice and dark fruit aromas free rein. The last bottle also displayed considerable wood influence on the round and rich flavors yet again, here that element was muted if not invisible as the powerful and concentrated mid-palate does not lack for finesse or balance on the wonderfully long and very firmly structured finish. I am happy to report that this most recent bottle much more closely resembles the tremendous potential that I originally saw from barrel. That of course does not explain the several bottles that seemed over whelmed by their oak treatment but this would not be the first time that I have noted extreme bottle variation in the Leroy Domaine wines. In sum, this is a big and powerful RSV but not an inelegant one that should live for decades.

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