Beaune 1er Cru "Les Boucherottes" 2004, A-F Gros

The blind tasting notes continue with this wine which turned out to be from A-F Gros. Above is a photo taken from the Cote d'Or at Pommard which shows the Beaune 1er Cru vineyards. Announced by a medium-red cherry colour, the first aromas are restrained, but after aeration reveal plum and red berry perfumes, evolving over time to very fine mineral and cassis. In the mouth the sheer quality of the fruit continues with a suave experience for the imbiber and a finish that is both hot and fresh. Wonderful now and has 4 years of bottle-evolution ahead. More info on the famous A-Gros estate on their website.

The domaine sent me some interesting information on the 2004 vintage conditions. March was much cooler than normal, April was close to the norm, May was very changeable, in June there were 20 hours more sunshine than normal and flowering started on June 10th as expected. But the first two weeks of July were unseasonably cold (dropping to 10 degrees C), in August rainfall was much higher than average and sunshine for the month was 54 hours below the norm. As a result, many vineyards were affected by oidium and grey rot. The quality of a vintage is primarily dependent on the last 3 weeks before harvest and luckily September was very sunny with 44 hours more than the average. The vendange started on September 25th and required a double selection of healthy grapes due to the odium and grey rot.