2004 Domaine Mongeard Mugneret Echezeaux Vielle Vignes
Burgundy,
FRANCE
$235. 00
Bottle
$2820.00 Dozen
ABV: 13.5%
Closure: Cork
Other Reviews....
Producer note: Vincent Mongeard told me that the growing season in 2004 was 'truly different. We had a cold March, a warm April, a cool May and the first half of June was hotter than normal. Unfortunately, from that point until the end of August, things were largely uninspiring. We did a green harvest in virtually all the parcels, hoping against hope that the vines could get them ripe. Happily, September was magnificent with an incredible 115 hours of sunshine in 3 weeks, which is the most since 1948. We began picking in the Côte de Beaune on the 23rd and picked the Richebourg on the 30th, saving the Hautes Côtes until October 1st. We had good sugars at between 12.5 and 13.5% and solid phenolic maturities but for me, 2004 is not a great vintage even though I like the wines as they offer nice purity and a certain appealing linearity. Still, I would compare them to 1974 but cleaner.' The wines were last racked in July and thus there was some reduction. Mongeard said that the malos were long but had been finished for several months. I must confess to scratching my head after tasting this set of 2004s as the wines were extremely tight and closed to the point of being hard and even a bit tough. The key problem appeared to be rather limited phenolic ripeness, which admittedly isn't corroborated by the picking dates Mongeard gave me. Perhaps these will round into shape with additional élevage but for the moment, I found them disappointing. By contrast, two of the three 2003s I sampled from bottle were really quite impressive. I'll retaste the '04s next year and see if things have improved as it's certainly possible that I simply caught them at a bad time.
Tasting note: The underlying material here is less ripe than the Boudots and while the nose is elegant and nicely expressive, the flavors are backward, very tight and rather awkward today. Curiously, despite the reserved state of the wine, it is delicious with a very edgy finish. My score offers the benefit of the doubt as this is normally quite a good effort chez Mongeard.
Score: 87-90 Drink: 2012+
Allen Meadows - Burghound
Tasted: Jan 01, 2006
Producer note: Vincent Mongeard told me that the growing season in 2004 was 'truly different. We had a cold March, a warm April, a cool May and the first half of June was hotter than normal. Unfortunately, from that point until the end of August, things were largely uninspiring. We did a green harvest in virtually all the parcels, hoping against hope that the vines could get them ripe. Happily, September was magnificent with an incredible 115 hours of sunshine in 3 weeks, which is the most since 1948. We began picking in the Côte de Beaune on the 23rd and picked the Richebourg on the 30th, saving the Hautes Côtes until October 1st. We had good sugars at between 12.5 and 13.5% and solid phenolic maturities but for me, 2004 is not a great vintage even though I like the wines as they offer nice purity and a certain appealing linearity. Still, I would compare them to 1974 but cleaner.' The wines were last racked in July and thus there was some reduction. Mongeard said that the malos were long but had been finished for several months. I must confess to scratching my head after tasting this set of 2004s as the wines were extremely tight and closed to the point of being hard and even a bit tough. The key problem appeared to be rather limited phenolic ripeness, which admittedly isn't corroborated by the picking dates Mongeard gave me. Perhaps these will round into shape with additional élevage but for the moment, I found them disappointing. By contrast, two of the three 2003s I sampled from bottle were really quite impressive. I'll retaste the '04s next year and see if things have improved as it's certainly possible that I simply caught them at a bad time.
Tasting note: The underlying material here is less ripe than the Boudots and while the nose is elegant and nicely expressive, the flavors are backward, very tight and rather awkward today. Curiously, despite the reserved state of the wine, it is delicious with a very edgy finish. My score offers the benefit of the doubt as this is normally quite a good effort chez Mongeard.
Score: 87-90 Drink: 2012+
Allen Meadows - Burghound
Tasted: Jan 01, 2006
-Stocks Extremely Limited