2004 Leroy Bourgogne

M

Marty L.

Marty Lebwohl
I finally tried this wine last night. For those who are as late to this party as I was, I'll repeat that this wine was from the vintage where Leroy declassified everything. According to Allen Meadows, the 2004 Bourgogne is a blend of Leroy's holdings in Pommard Vignot, Savigny Narbantons, Volnay Santenots, Clos Vougeot, Clos de la Roche and Corton-Renardes. So with that pedigree I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that this wine is just spectacular. It's light in color, effusively aromatic (red fruits mostly), and beautifully soft and balanced on the palate. It's been a long time since I opened up a bottle of red burgundy that was this lovely.
 
Thanks for the note Marty. I have really enjoyed this wine as well but experienced some bottle variation.

For any interested geeks out there, we checked out the chemistry of this wine and were quite surprised to learn that the pH was 3.99 (very high).
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Crikey! This stuff is $80/bottle.
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That can't be right. You must've misplaced a decimal point, or misheard. EighTEEN bucks, perhaps? Makes more sense for basic Bourgogne....
 
Consider yourselves lucky; this is selling for 135 now in Paris (at Legrand Filles & Fils, for those interested).

Chris, the 2004 is not like the others. As noted, it's actually 1er and Grand Cru mixed & declassified.

Marty, sounds like you got lucky; there has been wild variation, as far as I have heard, with this wine. The bottle I had had a heartbreakingly beautiful nose, but was repulsively green on the palate.
 
And 135-squiggle is somewhere around $80? Or more?

That's pretty wild. At least in my limited experience, when all those fancy "cru" things are disclassified, there's a very good reason for it. Cause usually, as I'm sure you know, it pays much better to keep the whole fancy name thing attached to the grapes, people seem to be willing to pay more for the whole branding business. Brings the whole Two-Buck Chuck myth to mind--"psst, don't tell anybody, but this wine is really unclassificated super high-end Napa Valley whatsit that was going to an airline but can't be used because corkscrews were banned after September 11th, get in on it now, yadda yadda yadda."

Of course, I'm cynical about sales pitches. And bitter after a lifetime of failure and disappointment.

Although things seem better from beachside in Honolulu. I recommend a trip here to anyone who's suffered a lifetime of failure and disappointment; a cool mai-tai helps to choke back the bile.
 
I've grown to hate the word "declassified" as well. As far as I can tell, it means "we put stuff that wasn't good enough to be what we're telling you it is in this bottle, plus unless you have us whispering in your ear you'll be buying a wine that's grossly atypical, and we're going to charge you a lot more than we normally would as compensation."

Someone call Ambrose Bierce.

Sharon, I for one am a big fan of the descent of the squiggle.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
Marty, sounds like you got lucky; there has been wild variation, as far as I have heard, with this wine. The bottle I had had a heartbreakingly beautiful nose, but was repulsively green on the palate.
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Had this at a tasting some time ago where one of the group (a huge Burgundy fan) mentioned he'd opened about 6 bottles in the last year - and no two were alike. For the record, mine had a thrilling, perfumed nose, but a comparatively weak palate that disappointed.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Could you translate that for me?
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Loose translation: that '73-'00 Ch. Montelena vertical was quite instructive, but perhaps I should have stopped before the selection of '60 Ports that followed.

HTH
Mark Lipton
 
sorry, but why would anyone declassify anything in burgundy in 2004 ?
 
originally posted by .sasha:
sorry, but why would anyone declassify anything in burgundy in 2004 ?
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As I understand it, the decision was more Lalou's reaction to the death of her husband than any vintage characteristic. I don't know if the estate has ever called it a declassification. To me they are unique, one-time blends; well worth trying just for for that reason.

The Bourgogne sold at a more reasonable price at release and then shot up to over $100 before dropping back. I've seen it recently in the mid-fifties. For whatever reason the "village" bottlings shot up in price and stayed there.
 
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