2004 La Romanee

Deep red-ruby. Aristocratic nose combines powerful minerality, black cherry, violet and underbrush. Wonderfully vinous and a bit imploded today; not a large-scaled or weighty wine but possesses terrific thrust. Still youthfully clenched, offering ineffable notes of dried flowers and minerals. Serious and cerebral rather than obviously sweet. Still, the combination of high pH and high acidity in this wine makes the Reignots appear lean and a bit medicinal by comparison.

Tasted at the La Romanée vertical at Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair. The 2004 La Romanée Grand Cru bottled by Bouchard Père & Fils has a strange nose. It does not display the vegetal scents like the Liger-Belair bottling, but it feels muffled and rather fungal. The palate is medium-bodied with a grainy, slightly acetic opening. It gains a little harmony toward the finish with fine definition, but there is a dourness and austerity that it cannot quite shake off. I would not leave this for a long time in the cellar. It actually declines in the glass and feels rasping and hot. Tasted June 2015. eRobertParker.com.July, 2015