88
score
Burghound
April 01, 2007
Producer note: Christophe Roumier describes the 2004 vintage as "an excellent surprise. It's a very Burgundian vintage as it is highly transparent and each wine tastes distinctly different from its neighbor. The growing season was tough, tough, tough because there was hail and oidium. Thankfully, the parcel of Musigny was spared any hail damage but that was just luck. Careful triage work was absolutely imperative; for example, in some parcels I threw out as much as 25% of the crop whereas in others, the losses were minimal. Treating against rot and oidium may have also caused the very long and slow malos because of the all the sulfur we sprayed with. Despite the less than idea conditions in August, we had a great September and sugars climbed like a rocket. I didn't chaptalize anything and we still had sugars that came in over 13% to as high as 14.2%, which I think is more than adequate. Phenolic ripeness though was just sufficient and thus I used very little of the stems with the exception of the Musigny where I used more. I fermented at relatively low temperatures until the very end where I let them spike for a day or so to be sure the sugars were completely finished. The wines continue to add weight and body and given how fresh they are, I'm in no hurry to bottle. At this point, though we will see, I am thinking that February or March will be a good time for them to go into bottle." As the scores and comments suggest, Roumier's '04s are really lovely and while they don't rival his '01s or '02s, I definitely prefer them to his '03s, which I found largely disappointing. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with them, it's just that Roumier has a habit of outperforming by far the quality of any given vintage yet I found these '03s to be only slightly better than average. (Diageo/Château and Estate Wine Company, New York, NY; John Armit Wines, Domaine Direct, Howard Ripley, Morris & Verdin and The Wine Society, all UK).
Tasting note: Ample wood sets off very ripe aromas of spiced plum, mocha and subtle coffee that lead to big, rich and powerful flavors that display a muscular, taut and extremely intense profile culminating in a ripe and long finish where another touch of wood resurfaces. This is not particularly elegant though it is lush, generous and mouth coating. The '03 Bonnes Mares will undoubtedly age even though it remains very '03 in style and character. In short, this is perfectly good if particular.
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