La Romanée is a grand cru monopole of just 0.8452 hectares on the Vosne-Romanée slope, the smallest appellation in France, owned in full by Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair. The 2004 dates from the first years after Louis-Michel Liger-Belair took the vineyard back into family hands.
About This Wine
Until 2002 La Romanée was farmed and bottled by others; from that vintage Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair has made and bottled the whole vineyard itself, and this 2004 is its bottling. The year itself was large and fairly cool, giving lighter, crisper reds rather than showy ones, and ladybirds caused trouble in some cellars at harvest. The site sits just above Romanée-Conti on thin, pebbly soil over limestone, which helps explain why La Romanée carries more depth than most 2004s. At more than twenty years old it should now be fully mature.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Faded cherry and dried rose, with tea leaf, undergrowth and a little sweet spice.
- Palate: Light on its feet and savoury, with soft red fruit, mineral grip and tannins that have largely melted away.
- Finish: Gentle and persistent, closing on earth, rose and a hint of orange peel.
Serving & Food
Drink now. Stand the bottle upright for a day or two, open it shortly before the meal and decant only to leave the sediment behind. Serve at about 16°C in a large Burgundy glass. Roast guinea fowl, eggs with shaved truffle or aged Comté would all be kind to it.
How to Enjoy
Mature La Romanée from the domaine's transition years, for a drinker interested in how the modern estate began.
Product Details
Producer: Domaine du Comte Liger-Belair
Country: France
Appellation: La Romanée Grand Cru Monopole
Region: Vosne-Romanée, Côte de Nuits, Burgundy
Vintage: 2004
Grape: Pinot Noir
Vineyard Area: 0.8452 ha
Volume: 750mL
About the Maison
La Romanée as one vineyard is a Liger-Belair creation. Between 1815 and 1826 the first Comte, a Napoleonic general who had bought the Château de Vosne, gathered nine small parcels, some through marriage and the rest by purchase, and in 1827 registered them under the single name La Romanée. For much of the twentieth century, though, the family did not make the wine. Sharecroppers farmed the vines and a string of négociants bottled it, Bouchard Père et Fils being the last. Louis-Michel took over the vineyard and the winemaking in 2002, but for the vintages 2002 to 2005 half of each crop still went to Bouchard, so two bottlings of those years exist.
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