Unlike so many "rockstar" winemakers in Burgundy, Benjamin Leroux wasn't born into a famous family domaine with top holdings in all the right vineyards. In fact, he wasn't born into a winemaking family at all. Benjamin decided he wanted to be a winemaker at the age of 13 and started at the Lycée Viticole de Beaune where he excelled as a student and was considered a prodigy. After finishing his wines studies at the Dijon school and having worked around the world from New Zealand to Oregon he finally landed his first real job at Cos d'Estournel in Bordeaux before returning to Burgundy in 1998. Shortly after arriving home he was offered the job of winemaker/régisseur at the prestigious Comte Armand (Domaine du Clos des Epéneaux) in Pommard,where he interned early on, in time for the 1999 vintage and the rest is history. Filling a rather large pair of shoes in the wake of previous winemaker Pascal Marchand, Benjamin really hit it out of the park with his first effort.
Having firmly established himself as one of the Côte d'Or's best young winemakers with a string of successful wines, many from very difficult vintages, at Comte Armand, Benjamin started a négociant label in Beaune with the 2007 vintage. That project has turned into a domaine with a small clutch of top vineyard holdings and a very bright future. Benjamin's final vintage at Comte Armand was 2014 and he's now on his way to achieving his goal of owning and running a top Burgundy domaine. From the beginning a champion of organic and biodynamic farming, all vineyards are managed following at the very least the principles of lutte raisonée farming practices whether rented vines or those of the domaine. Benjamin is also a fan of ultra high density planting, the old way in Burgundy, with some plots being planted at up to 30,000 wines per hectare where 10,000 is considered normal.
