All of Domaine Leflaive's 2004s were heavily reduced out of the gates—the Pucelles being the worst offender—and the 2004 Chevalier-Montrachet Grand Cru is still quite strongly marked by the toasty aromas of reduction, offering up notes of grilled bread, pear, dried white flowers, honeycomb and iodine. On the palate, it's full-bodied, layered and textural, with a bright spine of acidity and a tight-knit, compact profile that's still quite firm and unyielding, with good concentration and a somewhat mordant, delicately herbaceous finish. My reservation here is that while this is a fine wine in its introverted, reductive style, it's at odds with the aesthetic that defined the great Leflaive wines of the 1970s and 1980s—wines that were all about elegance and satiny plenitude.

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