Roederer Estate L'Ermitage 2004

Professional Ratings

• 97 Wine Enthusiast
  This is an exquisite sparkling wine made from 52% Chardonnay and 48% Pinot Noir, concocted into a special blend and aged for almost six years in oak cask. After disgorgement it was given another five months to sit in bottle before release. It has such freshness on the palate, such enviable acidity, that it's hard to believe the grapes were picked so long ago. Crisp apple dominates, with just a trace of yeastiness on the nose and palate. This is a delicious wine.
• 96 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: I have always had a soft spot for the 2004 L'Ermitage. The wine has always been so rich and balanced, even when it was young. TASTING NOTES: This wine performed right on cue and remains a top wine in my notebook. Its mix of green apples, minerality, and generous earthy notes should make it an outstanding match with baked skin-on chicken thighs in a savory cream sauce. (Tasted: April 4, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
• 93 Wine Spectator
  Impeccably focused and elegant, with layers of complexity that open slowly. Floral aromas of red apple and lemon tart lead to vibrant and delicately opulent flavors of mineral, raspberry and fresh ginger. A hint of hazelnut chimes in on the finish. Drink now through 2015. 3,000 cases made.
• 92 Wine & Spirits
  Blended from a selection of grapes from Roederer's estate vineyards, this includes four percent of barrel-aged reserve wine from the 2000 harvest. While chardonnay outweighs pinot noir (52 percent to 48), the flavors are more in the red fruit realm, with the fragrance of fresh raspberries. The wine's yeasty maturity measures that fruit into an enticing aroma, while the citrus underpinning of chardonnay lengthens the flavor keeping the structuretight and fine. A light, crisp vintage of L'Ermitage, this would be delicious with poached salmon.