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2004 Domaine Laroche Chablis Fourchaumes Vieilles Vignes

Have you ever had a fine mature white burgundy? Most gets drunk up too early. Still I was hesitant when I was offered this wine at a discount. I had good notes on other Laroche 04s, but had not tasted this. Was it old before its time?
I thought one, tasted it and found out that the wines was still young. The Laroche style is for wines with a laser like acidity as keen as an oysterman's knife. The 2004 Fourchaumes still has that, but with a fruit that has begun to rise up to cradle it. Burghound in his notes below, got it right, in suggesting that it should;d be drunk beginning this year.
You will see one reason for that at the top of the bottle. Laroche is a pioneer in using a stelvin or screwtop closure for their Chablis. In 2005 we tasted blind some of his 2002s bottled under cork and stelvin with M. Laroche himself. The cork bottles varied widely in quality, The Stelvins were all fresh. With the 2004 vintage, Laroche moved to stelvin only, all the way up to grand cru.

2004 Laroche Chablis Fourchaumes Vieilles Vignes 1er cru; Color: light gold green; Aroma: heady good acidity, lemony light flint, wafts of smoke; Mouth: clean fresh, bright, fleshy bright clean pretty nice depth and firm acidity, good thrust , long lingering acid and mineral, good fruit; Very Good - Excellent Was $45.99, now 29.99; Mixed Case, 26.99; Special $149 case of six , one per person, only six 6-bottle cases available

Alan Meadows, Burghound - “(from 30 year old vines situated in a 6.8 ha parcel; . A wonderfully elegant and airy nose of ripe straw and seawater aromas precede rich, full and sweet flavors that offer very good volume and ample minerality on the racy and nicely long finish. This too offers ample dry extract and a dry finish plus I quite like the overall balance here.” 2009+