The Ugly Duckling Year
2004 spent two decades as Burgundy's unloved vintage. At twenty-two, this Chapelle-Chambertin made the case for patience — quiet, lacy, held up by acidity that finally learned its manners.
Vintage 2004
8 notes
Twelve Hundred Bottles of Le Montrachet
Le Montrachet is 7.48 hectares in total; Ramonet's share is 0.26 — some 1,200 bottles a year from a parcel Père Ramonet secured in 1978. A cool, high-acid vintage, deep gold after twenty-two years.
A Debt Repaid in Chevalier
When words fall short of gratitude, there is always the upper slope of Puligny. Twenty-two years on, Leflaive's flagship grand cru still held its chalk-and-steel spine beneath layers of honey and toasted bread.
Bonnes-Mares on the Red Earth
One vineyard, two soils. De Vogüé's parcel sits on the red, clay-heavy terres rouges — where the domaine's Musigny is silk, this is muscle. At twenty years, the 2004 was only just beginning to open its door.
There Is No Regular Musigny Here
At de Vogüé, 'Vieilles Vignes' is not a special edition — it is the only Musigny the house makes. Twenty years on, the 2004 arrived as texture before aroma: liquid silk over a tension that still hasn't let go.
Musigny in Short Trousers
The label says premier cru; the fruit comes from the Musigny grand cru itself — young vines, declassified to protect the old-vine cuvée. Twenty years on, this 2004 smelled of forest floor and carried none of the vintage's feared green edge.
The Plateau Above Saint-Émilion
Troplong Mondot sits on the highest ground of Saint-Émilion, clay over limestone beside a water tower visible for miles. The 2004 — a quiet vintage between two loud ones — was drinking at full stride at sixteen years.
Two Hectares Called La Virgen
A two-hectare plot in Labastida, forty-year-old Tempranillo, twelve months in oak, and one of the great modern Rioja vintages. Sixteen years on it had shed the label 'modern' altogether.