The 2004 Dom Ruinart is just as brilliant and viscerally thrilling as it has always been. If anything, the 2004 has shut down considerably over the last six months. Tightly coiled and exceptionally beautiful, the 2004 boasts fabulous intensity, class and pedigree. The flavors are vibrant, chiseled and crystalline in their precision. Time in bottle is doing wonders for the 2004. This is a tremendous showing. Disgorged June 2013.

– vinous.com, November 2014

Very impressive aromatic depth here, layered and complex with a nicely captured toasty, nutty edge plus lemon citrus, peach and sweet-smelling florals. The palate has restraint and purity; really smartly focused power here with ripe acidity, plenty of attractive middle-palate flesh and a long, sherbet-like finish. Dosage is the lowest ever for Dom Ruinart at just 5.5g per liter.

– jamessuckling.com, July 2015

Disgorged in February 2016 with 4.5 grams per liter dosage, the 2004 Dom Ruinart Blanc de Blancs offers up notes of of sweet citrus oil, toasted nuts, dried white flowers and smoke, followed by a medium to full-bodied, creamy and textural palate underpinned by lively acids and concluding with a saline finish. The 2004 is more classically proportioned than the 2006, but it doesn't possess quite as much depth or concentration.

Vivid yellow. Pungent, heady aromas of ripe pear, orange pith, brioche and toasty lees, with a stony nuance adding lift and urgency. Smooth and expansive on the palate, offering intense citrus and orchard fruit flavors that pick up minerality and smokiness with air. Finishes sappy, penetrating and very long, with slow-building sweetness and a note of buttered toast. LAIAYBY.

From bottle. Disgorged June 2013. Dosage 5.5 g/l. Apple, milky coffee, salt, tight and austere. Very youthful and tight. Dense and intense. Needs lots of time. From magnum. Disgorged June 2013. Dosage 5.5 g/l. Salty and fruity – perhaps just a little more open than the 2004 from bottle, in fact – but barely. Very savoury and austere. (RH)

Disgorged June/July 2013. Tiny bubbles, not much aroma, just a hint of citrus. Light and delicate and with immense tension at the core, the freshness verging on sour apple and a slightly woody note but with those fine fine bubbles. (JH)

Very pale indeed. Light, delicate and flirtatious but with considerable evolution on the nose. Feather-light and a little suggestion of dosage. A little chewy on the end. (JR)