Bordeaux 2004 20 years on Part 1
Blacklock City
Tasted March 25, 2024 by oenanthe with 68 views
Introduction
A chance to try out the 2004 vintage in Bordeaux, neither fated nor feted, how would the wines be at age 20?
Flight 1 - St Estephe (2 notes)
Red
2004 Château Calon-Ségur
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Tight. Tighter than the Montrose, as least to my palate. Marked note of herbs, mint tea, not exactly fruit-laden. This is as straight-laced as they come, not gruff or grumpy, just very linear and strict. It gains some sweetness, some red fruit peeking out with time, whereas the Montrose remained dark the whole way through. An overwhelming feeling of restrained elegance, of having been made to be reserved and distant. And fully fulfilling that objective!
Red
2004 Château Montrose
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Estèphe
Deep and dark. Initially quite closed on the nose, however it is fruitier on the palate, fine acidity and some salty tangy notes. Whilst this never strays far from austerity, a good swish and a bit of time does allow it to unclench a bit, show a few curves amongst the straight lines. I found it more exciting that the Calon-Segur it was paired with, but it’s still rather foursquare and not very pliant. Needs more time basically, though doubt it will ever truly blossom! We started these before food arrived, which I suppose is objectively best, but food improved this and the Calon dramatically.
Flight 2 - St Julien (2 notes)
Red
2004 Château Léoville Barton
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Great nose. Immediately indicative of a lovely bottle. It confounds my expectations by being more lively than the Chateau normally is, there is not a huge distance, stylistically, separating this from the Poyferré which is a bit unusual. The cool blue fruit ‘signature’ of Barton isn’t really present here but it is none the worse for that and still appears as effortless as usual. Lovely balance, smooth and delicious, and absolutely open for business in a way that many of the other wines were not. More than one person said sexy. What a great name this is, and so keenly-priced versus what you get. Whenever I have a bottle I tend to start thinking about stocking up, and this evening was no different. This placed either first or second from all seven of us, and was my WOTN.
Red
2004 Château Léoville Poyferré
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Instantly in your face, night and day vs the St Estephe flight. Fully on the dark cassis spectrum, there are olive notes, meat, fat. It is richer, rounder, altogether more giving and pleasing, but can’t quite keep up with the Barton for classicism allied with sensual enjoyment.
Flight 3 - Pauillac (2 notes)
Red
2004 Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
This came across as very very claret, with all of the cedar, pencil lead, old school desk nature of Bordeaux. It’s got a good amount of funk as well, some proper barnyard in the mix. I found it a little lacking in the fruit department, perhaps a bit thin (though delicate might be a nicer way of phrasing it) and perhaps more in-line with my understanding of the vintage, but overall this is a nicely poised bottle that delivers just what you want from Bordeaux. I gave this my third spot, I really enjoyed its traditional appeal.
Red
2004 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Very bordeaux on the nose, like the GPL. Deep cassis, significantly more flamboyant than its flightmate, but an annoying trace of vanilla oak and caramel to go along with it. Normally I am not especially sensitive to this, but I think amongst these bottles with all of their classical restraint it really stood out. Is it really possible that the barrel toast has not been fully assimilated after 20 years, and that this wine is in fact still too young? Tellingly nobody even gave it a point, which for a wine of this calibre is pretty unusual, so perhaps everyone felt the same way.
Flight 4 - The Right Bank (1 note)
Red
2004 Vieux Château Certan
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol
Plusher, rounder, altogether far more fruity and vibrant than anything else on the table this evening – just a very different style from what was the sole right bank contender. Leather, chocolate, toast, and just super fruit. Has ages to go, nice now but will surely get better over the next ten or so years. This garnered a lot of praise from the table, but equally it was not the style that some liked and so it couldn’t quite knock the Leoville Barton off top spot. But bloody delicious and my second placed WOTN.
Flight 5 - Jerry was very naughty.... (1 note)
White - Sweet/Dessert
2009 Château Rieussec
France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes
Ah, sweet music. Strawberries and cream, vanilla custard, just ridiculously good and we had to exclude it from the voting lest something untoward happen….. Why is Sauternes always so good? Apricot, mango, marmalade, oily caramelised sugar, this has simply fabulous intensity without ever being OTT. It is light on its feet, has weight without density, perfectly balanced richness and acidity, the latter making it come alive. A class act that felt a lot younger than it is and has loads in the tank. Brilliant, and a splendid way to finish the dinner - personally I think we can forgive Jerry for straying from the brief!
Closing
Well the answer is that the ones that we tasted for the most part felt fresh and pretty youthful, with a lot more left in the tank and generally with a lot more oomph than we expected; the CT drinking windows would seem rather conservative based on Monday night’s showing. This is good news as the prices remain fairly subdued for this vintage and you can pick up a lot of nice wine for comparatively little outlay.
Blacklock on Philpot Lane was an excellent venue, corkage £10 every day, and food that matched the wines very well indeed. We had a decent table, the glasses whilst not spectacular were perfectly acceptable, the service was great and the overall bill was a welcome relief from some of the higher-priced venues we have used lately. Thank you to all who attended for bringing such excellent wines, and particularly to Joe for saving the day with some fine couriering of wine to get around a last-minute illness suffered by one of the team.
Voting (excluding the Rieussec) resulted in the following scores on the doors:
1. Leoville Barton - 17 points (and gaining votes from all 7 of us)
2. Vieux Chateau Certain - 12 points
3. Leoville Poyferré - 5 points
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