We have very few 1961 wines available at Arden.
Nowadays they are as rare as a blue rose… 💙
But we did have this bottle of 1961 Maison Leroy Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru for a client who wanted to give a nice 60th birthday gift 🥳.
At this time Leroy was a negociant, sourcing grapes from third-party vignerons and bottling wines under its own name.
This Nuits-St-Georges 1er Cru is (I think) a blend of several 1er Cru vineyards in Nuits, though I don’t know which ones.
Lalou Bize-Leroy, who reaches her 90th birthday in 2022, had been working in the family business for six years by 1961.
I have never met Lalou but I did speak to her on the phone some years ago after she had promised to send samples for a tasting that I was coordinating for my then day-job. She spoke too much and too quickly for my limited grasp of French, so I just kept saying “Merci Madame Bize-Leroy” – which I hope the lucky recipient of this bottle will also say 🙏.
