2004 Anne Gros Richebourg

Burghound Issue 21
Producer note: Anne Gros told me that in contrast to some growers, she had "no real problem with oidium and no real problems with rot either. We had some hail issues but thankfully none at all in the Hautes Côtes. In fact, most of the triage work that my picking team did was to eliminate under ripe berries than anything dried or rot-tinged. We obtained good sugars at between 12.5 and 13.5%, which given the conditions of the growing season is more than satisfactory, especially when you consider that at the end of August there was still a large percentage of green berries. In that sense, it's hard to believe that the vintage was essentially made in only 3 weeks. We did a green harvest but even so, this is not an especially concentrated vintage and thus I tended to let the cuvaisons go for a day or two longer than normal. Overall, I like the vintage as it's very Burgundian in style though let's be honest, it's good but not better than that and certainly not as good as 2003, which I prefer by a huge margin. Still, when I think of the impending disaster and what could have been when I looked at the vineyards in August, I am thrilled with the results!" As her comments suggest, Gros is a fan of her 2003s and believes them to be among, if not the, best wines that she has ever made. And there is no question, they are impressive if not classic.

Tasting note: This is even more expressive aromatically with more spice and floral hints but tighter and firmer in the mouth with big but not robust flavors that are taut, focused and concentrated as there is slightly better mid-palate sap and a bit better balance. This is fresh and intense with a lovely sense of transparency and I suspect this will be capable of a decade's worth of improvement and it should live for at least 20 years. Burghound 91-93 Points

Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar, Mar/Apr 06
Good ruby-red. Black fruits, blood orange and violet on the nose. Sweet, dense and chewy, with a fine-grained texture and terrific grip. This rather rigorous, minerally wine conveys an almost medicinal austerity but saturates the palate with flavor. Gros says the acidity here is technically the same as that of the Clos Vougeot, but today this wine seems more nervy. 91-94 points