2004 Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair Vosne-Romanée Reignots 1er Cru

Good deep red. Downright sexy nose offers raspberry, Oriental spices, flowers and a hint of pepper that Liger-Belair said was more apparent last spring. The deepest and blackest yet of these 2004s, with penetrating, rich flavors of wild dark fruits complicated by game, iron and tobacco. This is distinctly powerful, even muscular, for the vintage, conveying a strong impression of terroir

A gentle hint of wood frames exuberantly ripe, spicy and exceptionally elegant black pinot fruit with obvious mineral and floral notes that merge seamlessly into edgy, pure and superbly well delineated middle weight flavors that possess near perfect balance on the linear, pure and crystalline finish. This is seriously classy juice with a certain coolness to it. In sum, really a lovely effort.

Good ruby-red. Thoroughly ripe aromas of black raspberry, minerals and humus, with a gunpowder hint of reduction (all of these samples show a slightly syrah-like reductive quality today). Sweet black cherry flavor complicated by smoke, minerals and gunflint. Perhaps the most penetrating and vibrant wine to this point, and very firmly structured. There's barely eight inches of topsoil over large rocks and limestone here, notes Liger-Belair, who adds that his vines run from the bottom to the top of the slope.