On March 7, 2012 we held the third and final dinner in this year’s series of 2004 White Burgundy Vintage Assessment and Oxidation Check Dinners – the night we usually refer to as “Mostly Montrachet.” This night is always sort of a celebration dinner as it usually includes the very best whites of the vintage.
The dinner was held in the private room at Melisse restaurant in Santa Monica. Melisse, in my opinion, continues to be Southern California’s finest restaurant, and the Michelin two star rating it holds is well deserved. The food consistently dazzles everyone and Sommelier Brian Kalliel always does an impecable job with the wine service. (He has an excellent palate too and I always invite Brian to submit his vote on the top five wines of the night.)
Ten of us spent a very enjoyable evening enjoying the wines listed below. In attendance were:
Michael Zadikian, John Tilson, Ron Movich, Wes Jennison, Ron Greene, Maureen Downey, John Brincko, Jay Boberg and one person who asked to remain anonymous. On to the wines…
Appetizer Course
Hokaido Scallop, Puffed Rice, Salmon Roe
Lobster Bolgonese
Inada, Uni Sorrel
1993 Vilmart Couer de Cuvée Champagne (Magnum)
Light gold color; very fine mousse; some apple and peach flavors with great acidity and an extremely long minerally finish. Extraordinary for a 1993 vintage champagne from a year in which a lot of people didn’t produce vintage Champagne. [My thanks to Ron Greene for providing this]94
Flight One-Four Montrachets and a Bienvenues (single blind)
Santa Barbara Spot Prawan and Dugneness Crab with sweet pea Anolotti black trumpet mushrooms and a toasted almond emulsion
#1 [2004 Jadot Montrachet]
Light yellow-gold color; some pear and hazelnut aromas and flavors; reasonably mature but with good acidity; some modest minerality on the finish. I liked this better when it was first poured than I did later in the evening. It seemed to tire in the glass a bit. [NB Given that the other two Jadots we had on nights one and two were very advanced or oxidized, drink this soon] Group Rank: Tied for 11th, 0 pts 93|92
#2 [2004 Drouhin De Laguiche Montrachet]
Medium gold color; some white flowers and pear aromas; an elegant wine with medium level concentration, soft edges, and a soft lactic/calcium type minerality on the finish to go with its very feminine style. A very likeable wine, but suffered in comparison to the top wines. Group Rank: 5th, 11 pts (0/0/0/5/1) 94
#3 [2004 Leflaive Bienvenues Batard Montrachet]
Light yellow color; strong reduction aromas – some gasoline over citrus; very bright, tight wine – the ph seemed quite low perhaps due to the strong reduction; exceptionally tight wine. This wine was very difficult to judge. It seems obvious from the prior Leflaives we’ve tasted that this must be the Leflaive BBM, but I don’t think the one is permanently reduced [NB Maureen Downey brought this bottle as a make-up wine since she was unable to attend night two due to illness and we didn’t get to taste it.] Group Rank: Tied for 11th, 0 pts 92+|93?
#4 [2004 LeMoine Montrachet]
Medium/full gold color, the darkest of the flight; some apple pastry aromas and rich butterscotch aromas; a little more youthful on the palate with some round very approachable fruit flavors that struck me as a little fat like Montrachet can be. This wine didn’t have much resemblance to the other 2004s we’ve had over the three nights because it doesn’t have the acidity or the sulfur that most have. A nice finish on this wine, but not very minerally. A pleasant wine for current consumption, but I would drink this up sooner rather than later. Group Rank: Tied for 11th, 0 pts 93
#5 [2004 Colin-Morey Montrachet]
Medium yellow gold color; aromas of white flowers and pears; on the palate this had very precise Anjou pear and minerals flavors. The finish was very long, minerally and gave an impression of slight sweetness. An exceptional wine and my number five wine of the night. Group Rank: 6th 10 pts (0/1/0/1/4) 95
Flight Two-Corton Charlemagne and Meursault (single blind)
Baltic Salmon with Green Garlic and Sunchokes
#6 [2004 Coche-Dury Corton Charlemagne]
Light to medium gold color; some citrus and a kiss of vanilla (oak) and smoke (Coche, but there are three of them in this flight); some citrus and just amazing minerality that seems very layered – there’s also some nice fruit under that minerality; an incredibly long, sweet minerally finish. Very impressive. My number three wine of the night. Group Rank: 2nd, 42 pts (3/3/5/0/0) 96
#7 [2004 Leroy Corton Charlemagne]
Light yellow gold color; reduced aromas—strong matchstick aromas which diminished somewhat over time but were still there at the end of the evening. This had very intense green apple and citrus with great acidity and structure; this was very tight, structured, somewhat backward wine that I thought improved a lot over the course of the evening… Pretty clearly Leroy Corton from past years’ experience. [NB This was a wine that people either really liked or marked down for its reduction] My number four wine of the night. Group Rank: 4th, 15 pts (0/1/1/3/1) 94|95+
#8 [2004 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres]
Light yellow gold color; at first this had somewhat off/ reduced aromas (one taster felt very strongly that the wine was corked, but none of the rest of us agreed and with time the somewhat off character seemed to dissipate somewhat). On the palate the wine was reasonably minerally, but it seemed a bit off to everyone. We could all tell that there was an incredible wine underneath, but that somehow this bottle just wasn’t quite right. Several of us thought this might be the Coche MP. Group Rank: Tied for 9th, 1 point (0/0/0/0/1) 92? tonight, 94 if sound?
#9 [2004 Coche-Dury Meursault Caillerets]
Medium plus gold color, the darkest of this flight; big forward white flowers and citrus aromas; light citrus flavors but very minerally. This was exceptional only for its minerality level on the finish. Group Rank: Tied for 9th, 1 point (0/0/0/0/1) 93
Flight Three-Chevalier Montrachet (single blind)
Jidori Chicken Stuffed with Black Truffle with Green Lentils, Romanesco Cauliflower and Jus de Roti
#10 [2004 Bouchard Montrachet]
Very light gold color; light citrus and white flowers aromas; some light pear and citrus flavors with nice minerality. This seemed lighter bodied than the others in flight, but it was quite elegant. This improved a good bit by the end of the evening and kind of grew on me. Group Rank: 8th, 2 pts (0/0/0/0/2) 93|94
#11 [2004 Sauzet Montrachet]
Medium-full gold color – pretty startling for a 2004; very over the top apricot and butterscotch aromas; very toasty, butterscotch flavors. Everyone agreed that this wine is quite advanced and some people thought it was oxidized. From my perspective it is right on the borderline of outright oxidation. [NB This was our only Sauzet included in the three nights and it was very disappointing relative to the 2000-2002 wines we’ve had ] Group Rank: Tied for 11th 0 pts 91?-advanced
#12 [2004 Henri Boillot Montrachet]
Just short of medium gold color; some light spearmint aromas along with lemon/lime citrus; lemon/lime citrus flavors with good intensity, very good acidity and nice minerality. The finish here is quite long and has some sweet citrus fruit and minerality. An exceptionally well made wine and my number 6 wine of the night. Group Rank: 7th , 3 pts (0/0/0/1/2) 95
#13 [2004 DRC Montrachet]
Medium gold color; some spearmint here too, along with a touch of oak, and pear; this has unbelievable depth of fruit (pear), layers of flavor, and richness on the palate along with almost equal length and minerality on the finish. Truly impressive wine that to me just bowled over the competition. Seemed a bit more ready to drink than the other big wines of the night. My number one wine of the night. DRC? [NB Nobody had this lower than 4th] Group Rank: 1st, 45 pts (5/3/2/1/0) 97
#14 [2004 Ramonet Montrachet]
Between light and medium yellow gold color; light pear, citrus and hints of spearmint again; good pear and citrus intensity on the palate with truly extraordinary minerality. This is more like Chevalier than Montrachet. Really long finish with fabulously intense minerality. This is probably more my preferred style, but I can’t deny the concentration of #13. My number two wine of the night. Ramonet? Group Rank: 3rd, 35 pts (1/4/4/1/0) 96
Dessert
A Selection of fine Cheeses
2004 Chateau Y’Quem
Ron Movich was kindly volunteered to bring two excellent dessert wines, including this 2004. Light yellow-green color; this has intense aromas of peach and fresh apricot; on the palate it was highly viscous, and had a sort of green melon and peach flavor and unusual minerality for a dessert wine. This should age very nicely. 94+
1971 Chateau Rieussec
Brown/orange color; strongly botrytised aromas; this was concentrated with some maple syrup and dates flavors. The finish was quite intense 94
The usual condition statistics…
Total votes–Night Three Percentage
Advanced-1/14 7.1%
Oxidized—0/14 0.0%
Corked – 0/24 0.0%
Oxidized plus advanced- 1/14 7.1%
Cumulative Statistics-Nights one through three:
Advanced-5/63 7.9%
Oxidized–3/63 4.8%
Corked – 1/63 1.6%
Permanently Reduced- 1/63 1.6%
Oxidized plus advanced- 8/63 12.7%
Some overall impressions and thoughts
The 2004 vintage had the lowest overall premature oxidation rate we have experienced to date. However, the combined rate of oxidized and advanced wines was virtually the same (actually a half a percent higher) as at our 1995-2000 retrospective tasting a year ago.
I would definitely caution against assuming that the slightly lower actual oxidation rate means that the producers as a group are getting premox under control. At the point that the 2004 whites were bottled (mostly in 2006), only a tiny handful of producers had made any changes in their sulfiting practices or winemaking to avoid premox. For most producers, any changes in their winemaking to avoid premox didn’t occur until the 2006 or 2007 vintages.
2004 exhibits slightly more reduced aromas than we’ve seen in some time, though the aromas overall were less reduced than what I’ve seen in prior tasting opportunities on the 2004s over the past few years (except for Leflaive). I’m told that some this traces back to the widespread oidium infection which began in April and the domaines had to continuously treat their vines with sulfur right up until the ban a few weeks before the harvest. The grapes were somewhat tightly clustered and some of the elemental sulfur got trapped between the berries and didn’t get washed out by the rainfall. This was elemental sulfur rather than SO2 but it tended to make the wines a bit more reductive in many instances than normal. The question is whether or not this will contribute to increased longevity? Unless that elemental sulfur got converted to SO2 somewhere along the way, the answer will be no. The fact that 12.7% of the wines were either advanced or oxidized at 7.5 years is not particularly good news.
While some of the wines we tasted seemed quite youthful, others were not. Most of the usual premox suspects – including Jadot (2 out of 3), Blain-Gagnard and Bonneau du Martray – performed quite poorly again. Both Niellons were oxidized. We only had one Sauzet this year – a Montrachet – and it was quite advanced. I hope this doesn’t indicate a return to the ‘bad old days’ for Sauzet. Fontaine-Gagnard’s Criots Batard, the Pernot BBM, Billaud-Simon Chablis Clos and the two Le Moine wines seemed fully mature with nowhere to go from here but down. Drink them all soon. The fully developed Le Moine wines made me question (again) Mounir Saouma’s practice of substituting CO2 for much the SO2. CO2 is a physical barrier to oxidation but it does not chemically inhibit or reverse the formation of acetaldehyde (what we taste and smell as oxidation.) Only SO2 does that.
One of the more disturbing trends was that every Leflaive we tasted was very reduced --exhibiting strong sulfur and gasoline aromas and, in the case of the Batard, it was permanently reduced and close to mercaptans. (So were two consecutive bottles of Leflaive Puligny Clavoillon that I’ve tasted over the last two years.) I think most of the 2004 Leflaive wines will eventually round out but its going to take at least another five years on the grand crus before that will happen. Right now the wines are incredibly fierce and not really enjoyable.
On the unexpected positive surprise side, Phiippe Colin’s Chevalier Montrachet (his father made perenially premoxed Colin-Deleger wines) was a beauty that I’d be happy to have in my cellar. Matrot’s MP also performed well this year. That was a huge surprise (but an oxidized 2007 experienced recently keeps me from hoping for an upward trend here.) Girardin’s Batard and Corton Charlemagne Quintessence were both excellent wines and were far removed stylistically from the old oaky monsters he used to make. The Girardin Corton Quintessence from both 2002 and 2004 made a strong impression on me with Coche-like concentration and excellent flavors, if not quite at the level of a Coche-Dury.
The strengths of the 2004 vintage were Montrachet, Chevalier Montrachet, Corton Charlemagne and Meursault. Batard was a disaster with almost all of the wines exhibiting overripe aromas and flavors. Even the two best Batards (Ramonet and Henri Boillot) were a point or two below their normal standards. Bienvenues fared far better than Batard did. The Dauvissat and Raveneau Chablis are quite youthful and the vintage will age very well for both producers, and while the wines are excellent, they will never approach the 1996, 2000 or 2002 vintages.
My thanks to all of you who continue to post your tasting experiences on the Oxidized Burgundies Wiki Site. Please continue.