2004 Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru

"The growing season offered very good but dry conditions," noted enologist Francois Millet. "There was high skin ripeness and the drought decreased the amount of juice. In fact, we had even less juice than in 2003, but the fruit retained acidity because the summer was much less hot. The acidity gives a sorbet character to the fruit. It's a very floral vintage. There's a lot of fruit but the vintage is based on structure. It's a bit of a prude as a vintage: the wines are essentially serious." Millet destems but doesn't crush the grapes. And he doesn't like to vinify with whole clusters because he's afraid of "standardizing the wines." (Dreyfus-Ashby, New York, NY; Ideal Wines, Medford, MA; Barrique Wines, Chicago, IL; Chambers & Chambers, San Francisco, CA; The Wine Company, Minneapolis, MN, Vintner Select, Cincinnati, OH)