2004 Vosne-Romanee Domaine Leroy Bottle #06738
The infamous declassified Leroy wine. Many have been very critical of this wine. But I have been tasting through my stash of declassified wines and have always admired them. I have been pleasantly surprised. Usually Domaine Leroy wines takes ages (decades and decades) to mature. The 2004 are atypical in that they show well already which to me is not a bad thing. The 2004 do not have the concentration and depth of the best Leroy ones but that in itself is not a bad thing as sometimes they can be overwhelming. I desperately looked again for the green meanies but there wasn’t any of those characters. Yes, I have picked that taint in many of my 2004s so I reasonably sensitive to it. This was really showing a lot of complexity and it wafted over the palate. The wine was so seductive and that balance was impeccable. The bottle was polished off in no time. Just a mid week experience.
Thanks Sanjay. I have some of the Bourgogne and have been surprised how open and gorgeous they have become. Great note.
What did these cost on release?
I think it was $40–/bottle for the Bourgogne.
IIRC I think the Bourgogne Rouge was $99.99 and the Villages wines were about $269.99 (standard retail at the time)
Thanks for checking in on this one Sanjay. I liked the '04 Leroy blends on release. Some people hated them.
I think I paid a bit over $300 for the Village wines. That was kind of expensive for a declassified village wine when you could at that time buy Rousseau Clos de Beze or Chambertin for a bit less. But then that was Leroy.
I had many a times thought of selling these wines but then I cannot afford to buy the Leroy wines now so I decided to enjoy them for what they are worth. My wines have turned out quite well and given a lot of pleasure.
That’s my recollection as well, at least pricing from Premier Cru on pre-arrival.
I paid $80 for the Bourgogne Rouge and $190 for the Vosne. I tried 1 of each a few years ago, and found them to be advanced in both color and palate. Not great wines for my palate. I sent them to auction at HDH last spring and netted $560 for the BR and $925 for the Vosne. So clearly some people like the wines and are willing to pay quite a bit for them.
I saw a lot of these during my time in auction, and we so rarely could take the wines to sell. The color is separating seriously and rapidly. I’ve had good bottles, but are few and far between. I only saw one case of the VR that was in good shape.
Similarly to Larry, I paid $70 and $185 at release for the Bourgogne and the Vosne Romanee. Bought four cases of each and have really enjoyed drinking them over the years. As an aside, I sold a case of Bourgogne in May at auction for $542 per bottle net to me. I couldn’t believe it. It’s nice wine, but not $500 nice.
The myth of the wine in Asia has reached Astronomical heights.
Yep, that’d be me 
But it wasn’t just the old ladybird chestnut, the one of my my half-dozen Bourgognes that I opened was already cloudy on release - she was really ahead of the curve on natural wine…
I was very happy to the same money back for 5, that I paid for the original 6…
So what do you mean by “declassified”? For Bourgogne I think I get it, but for Vosne ? Does this mean that it’s a Premier Cru and ends up being sold as “village”? Thanks for the clarification!
As a side note, and because I posted recently in the Travel Forum about Paris, you can find the Bourgogne 2003 and 2009 nowadays for around 40-50 EUR at several wine shops in Paris. So if it hits home for you and you happen to travel to the most beautiful city on earth 
, you can consider it…
Alain
Maison or Domains?
Domaine bottling.
I am not sure you get it if you did not the history behind the declassification ( which was a one off)
The wines in 2004 were declassified so that the Bourgogne had wine included from ( Pommard Vignots, Savigny Narbatons, Clos de Vougeots, Clos de la Roche and Corton Renardes). So it not a standard Bourgogne that you would buy in any other vintage.
The “Village” Vosne for example had wines included from Richebourg, RSV, Brûlées, Beaumonts and Genevrieres.
The wines needed to be declassified as the wines are not up to par with what the usual standard of these wines ( unlike Burghound who was of the opinion that the wines were astonishing and was it was a shame they were blended away).
But I had good luck with my lot and they are very good at the ‘declassified level’.
Bill,
BTW, did you try any of the ‘village’ wines?
I do agree that they are ahead of their curve in maturity. Usually, Leroy wines take decades to open up and show their best. Compared to that, these wines are already drinking well. But as I intend to drink my remaining bottle in the near future that aspect (the lack of longevity) does not bother me so much.
Hi Sanjay,
Yes I had an importer dinner where all were poured - Vosne and Chambolle included - this was a really early release for the domaine and like for many other producers, the pyrazines were not yet starting to show themselves, the oak masking it. I thought them good enough to make an order - I got six of the Bourgogne, 3 of the Vosne and none of the Chambolle - not for the lack of trying on the latter. I found the Bourgogne sufficiently bad (for my palate) about 6 months later that I found what seemed a happy home for all my remaining bottles…