2004 Red Burgundies

26 November 2011: We’ve been dining at different restaurants in the UK and France this past week. When we eat out, especially with the mark-ups at high-end restaurants, we tend to be quite modest in our choice of wine. So we restrict ourselves to a certain budget. Another restriction we have is that Richard is rather fixated on his two-region wine preference (Bordeaux and Burgundy, never mind the rest of France and the rest of the world) that we find ourselves choosing from a very limited range. Working within these parameters, we have been choosing a number of Burgundy reds from the 2004 vintage, a vintage rather prevalent on restaurant wine list at the moment, given its drinkability and lack of material for long-term ageing. 2004 was a very challenging vintage for Burgundy and picking with optimum phenolic ripeness was the exception rather than the rule. So the exceptions have been generally rather well-received and the norms not so well, ranging from undrinkable to just about acceptable.


We were at L’Hostellierie de Levernois in Burgundy earlier this week and we went through 3 bottles of 2004 vintage and the results were:

2004 Ruchottes-Chambertin, Christophe Roumier: corked!

2004 Bonnes Mares, Drouhin-Laroze: rather indifferent and insipid, quite herbaceous, wouldn't qualify for Grand Cru level of quality

2004 Bonnes Mares, Georges Roumier: some very good material here, juicy red fruit, a little spicy and minerally, a little herbaceous, but definitely got structure, reasonable concentration, nicely presented complexity, and beautifullly integrated acidity and only slightly astringent tannin, perhaps not for the very long haul, but certainly drinking well now and for next 10 - 12+ years and excellent with food.  Definitely in the class of Grand Cru and very fine for this vintage.

Then we were at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London and we had:

2004 Pommard Rugiens, de Courcel (first bottle): too funky a nose, terribly bretty, not pleasant at all

2004 Pommard Rugiens, de Courcel (second bottle): too acidic, not balanced at all, totally undrinkable

(So I grabbed the wine list and ordered a bottle of 2006 Saumur-Champigny…and it was lovely!)

This was followed by dinner at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, and this time we ordered:

2004 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Chaignots, Henri Gouges: there was sufficient amount of red fruit, spice and earthy character, interlaid with some stalkiness. Lacking in intensity and concentration, but still got some structure and acidity to go well with food. Drink now.

Lessons learnt?? Be a bit more adventurous with the wine list!! Lesser vintages can still produce very respectable wine, in the right hands!