Medium yellow. There’s a hint of toast on the nose. This is largely proportioned with some fat to the texture but enough acidity to keep it on the straight and narrow. There’s a decent burst of interest in the mid-palate though overal I’d like a little more ‘energy’.
Ardhuy
2004 Ardhuy Pommard Les Lambots
A shiny medium cherry-red. The nose is pure pine-needles and cedar – slowly a more fruit-driven effect comes into the mix but over about 20 minutes it is never more than a secondary characteristic. The palate is acid forward, seemingly it needs just an edge more ripeness. The best part of this wine is its texture – very nice finely grained tannins – the finish is not too bad and seems riper than the rest of the wine. Works reasonably well with food, but the borderline ripeness means it would be challenge on its own.
2004 Ardhuy Pommard Les Fremiers
Medium, medium-plus cherry-red. The nose has faint cedar and a powdery red fruit aspect of quite some width, depth develops only slowly though I’d like more precision. The palate has just an edge to it, like the acidity is only-just ripe – which would be a surprise considering it was picked at 13.9° natural – on the positive side here you can easily see why this is a premier cru; for the first time we have a wine with more than one dimension on the mid-palate, and nice fruit it is too. There is nothing like the density of the previous Dugat-Py wine, but then this 1er cru is less than half the price of that villages wine!
2004 Ardhuy Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes
2004 Ardhuy Pommard Les Fremiets
2004 Ardhuy Puligny-Montrachet
2004 Ardhuy Savigny-lès-Beaune Les Peuillets
2004 Ardhuy Vosne-Romanée Les Chaumes
Bottled in September. I was tempted not to include this as I’d like it all for myself! A reticent nose that needs quite some coaxing from the glass – it’s worth the effort though. This is one of those transparent and haunting noses that stay in the glass long after you drain it – very lovely. Real concentration on the palate, just a little fat, with flavours that are exquisitely precise. This is a really lovely wine – warmly recommended, provided there’s enough left for me.