2004 Bordeaux- the last affordable vintage?

A bunch of us met up to take a look at a bunch of 04 Bordeauxs that had recieved a 93 from either Parker, Suckling, and Tanzer. We focused on wines that were generally between 50-100, though some were a bit higher then 100. All wines except for the welcome flight and the desert flight were served blind. They were also revealed after every flight

we also had a cava too, but no notes were really taken. I found this to be a very interesting wine, and will be glad that I have this when I have mine in a few years

• 2004 Château Malartic-Lagravière Blanc 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  nose: a really interesting smokey backdrop with loads of minerals, limes, lemon cream, lychees, and some gunflint tones too
  
  taste: mineral laced on the palate with sweet lime tones, lemon cream, lychees, and flinty tones
  
  overall: a very pretty blanc. On the young side, but this is very nice with medium acidity and a mineral based attack and lychee+flinty finish. Will be a nice one to revisit in 3 years

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A very interesting flight that really showed an interesting range on the wines. The LP had to be flawed, it was just odd and there was a consensus that this was a flawed bottle. This was also made more interesting when revisiting the wines later as they showed more of their characteristics, is that because of the reveal, or did they need more air time?

• 2004 Château Cos d'Estournel 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Estèphe

  nose: at first this was an upfront and very new world-esque nose of dark red fruits(with dark cherry being the predominant note, mixed in with smoke, red currants, and black berries. a bit more surface at first that then evolves giving off tones of cedar that then unravels by the end of the evening into coffee tones, red and black fruits, chalk, and asian spice tones. This really ran the gamut of being a simple wine that then showed what it really had by having more depth on the nose and more complexity
  
  taste: ever changing with black currants, black cherries, cedar box, and blackberries at first. On the retaste later in the evening, it revealed subtle tones, but with power behind it of asian spices, roasted coffee beans and exotic herbs
  
  overall: During the initial tasting, this was a good, but in a way simple wine that had a nice nose to it, but not that much depth. Everything was well in place and it was a 88-90 pt wine, but, when retried after the bag was taken off and at the end of the evening, it revealed a much more interesting wine that can age as it picked up body and tannins actually and turned into a 90-92 pt wine. With the aggregate it was a 90 pt wine, and really needs a long decant or another 12 years sideways

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• 2004 Château Léoville Poyferré Flawed

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Saint-Julien

  nose: very odd but pungent nose with bannana tones striking you right off the bat, while tones of nail polish remover, cedar box, orange peels and some red currants lie beneath
  
  taste: much more smooth on the palate with rich cedar tones, cherries, blackberries, and black currants
  
  overall: VA problems on teh nose? I had a feeling this was an off bottle to begin with, and when revealed, I just knew that this wasn't how a Leoville Poyferre should taste or act. The nose and palate were two completely different beasts, but a few of us came to the conclusion that this had to be a bad bottle as it was just bizzare, and not in a good way

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• 2004 Château Pichon-Longueville Baron 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  nose: nice classy and elegant nose showing floral tones, spice box, red cherries, and crushed rocks. Very pretty nose that made me guess this to be a pomerol
  
  taste: very rich tones of coffee, black currants, spice box, and red cherries. Smooth and rounded with a fat feel
  
  overall: this one was a shocker when it got revealed. I have never had a Baron that acted like this. There was no bully or gut punching style that it normally has, but, it was still a outstanding wine that was thought provoking and possesed a fluid coffee attack and rich blackberry finish

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• 2004 Château Pontet-Canet 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  nose: very tight upfront, that took a while to reveal its charms with bold cedar tones, red cherries, loads of red and black currants with bits of spice box hiding underneath. It became a very expressive nose towards the end of the night as I let this sit in a glass
  
  taste: backwards and tannic with cedar planks, red cherry tones, red and black currants, and some pencil lead poking its head out
  
  overall: as usual with pontet canet under alfred tesseron, this needs a lot of time to fully come out. A brooding beast of a wine that screams for a rare steak, and also an 8 hour decant. This will certainly be one to revisit in 15 years(yes it probably will take that long), but it has a very nice and bold attack of cedar and a penetrating red and black currant finish

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This was a very confusing flight. Only the LeGay could've possibly been construed as a right bank in the flight, but it was guessed more as possibly the palmer. They generally showed to be very modern in style. The aromatics in this flight were great and this flight showed a lot of promise on all of the wines(the Pavie needed a lot more air time, so its hard to make a full judgment)

• 2004 Château Angélus 92 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  nose: very interesting nose of Iron and iodine right off the bat that evoked an aged chateauenuf at first(if I didn't know that the whole lineup was bordeaux). As it unwound, it reavealed a very dense and layered nose of dark red cherries, cedar box, red currants, tobbacco, and some root vegetal tones. Classic Angelus that toes the modern/traditional line
  
  taste: wonderfully fluid on the palate with layered tones of red currants, roast coffee tones, black currants, red cherries, leather and some cedar box tones
  
  overall: Great polish and wonderfully smooth and elegant. Somewhat acting like a margaux wine with a very polished black currant attack and a elegant finish possesing tones of leather and cedar box. This will definitely be a fun one to revisit in 6-8 years to see the evolution and can age gracefully for probably 25-30 years

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• 2004 Château Le Gay Pomerol 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Pomerol

  nose: a wonderful and beautifully open nose with impeccable balance possesing rounded tones of leather, varied floral tones, and a giant red fruited core with bits of mixed berries just permeating in your nose. Very polished and elegant with a sweet touch of class
  
  taste: very rounded and beautiful feel of leather, various red fruits, floral bits, and plush tones of mixed berries
  
  overall: a wine that is just pure class in a bottle. Silky and refined with very pretty length on the palate that just glides across like an ice dancer with a silky red fruited attack and berry based finish

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• 2004 Château Pavie 88 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  nose: bold but tight nose of roasted cedar tones, coffee, smoke, black cherries, and anise. When this was blind, I mistook it for a graves(notably I guessed this to be the smith-haut-lafite)
  
  taste: ridiculously tannic with roasted coffee tones, black cherries, and anise
  
  overall: in fairness, this wine wasn't decanted before the tasting, and was just bottle aired and was put towards the end of the second flight. Still, since this was a blind tasting, we can only go on what was present at the time, and it was just brutally young. Insanely tannic and wasn't as expressive on the nose as I'd expect from Pavie. This really needed more air time and under different circumstances, I'd probably have different notes, but be it as it is, this is how the bottle showed tonight

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• 2004 Château Pavie Macquin 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Libournais, Saint-Émilion Grand Cru

  nose: bold nose of roasted coffee tones, loads of black fruits, smoke, and black cherry tones. As blind, I never would've guess this nose to be close to a st emilion
  
  taste: excellent feel and fluid with roasted coffee tones, black fruits, smoke, and some black cherry tones making their way through
  
  overall: an outstanding wine with a nice full feel. A bigger merlot that left us not thinking that this was right bank(and hell, none of guessed right bank on the flight in general). Full attack of roasted coffee tones with an effusive smokey finish

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a very interesting flight. This really showed off the stylistic characteristics and terroir differences the best. Outside of the shut down Haut-Bailly, we really got a sense of the terroir, and that made it really fun to dissect the wines in this flight

• 2004 Château Smith Haut Lafitte 90 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  nose: dark nose filled with smoke, scorched earth, cassis, anise, some cedar tones, and a bit of black cherry. Classic graves profile that stuck out in the flight for me
  
  taste: good medium/full bodied feel with smoke, charcol, scorched earth tones, cassis, anise, and some black cherry with bits of cedar on the back end. Well balanced and blended together
  
  overall: If you like graves, you like this wine. There were divided opinions of this wine, but for me this was just what I would expect from a graves. Nice smokey profile with a charcol attack and cedary finish

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• 2004 Château Palmer 93 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  nose: beautifully lifting nose of floral tones, small berries, leather, smoke, and sweet red cherries abound. wonderfully pungent and balanced with sheer beauty everywhere
  
  taste: very polished feel, but young at the same time with small berries, all sorts of florals, leather, and sweet red cherries
  
  overall: this was my co-WOTN. Both this and the le gay were on another level(though for some reason the angelus won, even though it didn't win WOTF). A very beautiful Palmer with it's sheer elegance and ingrid bergman-like class and beauty. Silky berry attack that fluidly gives way to a sweet red cherry finish. This wine will certainly reward patience as it will get even more beautiful with time

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• 2004 Château Lascombes 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux

  nose: very aromatic nose filled with tones of leather, dark cherries, cassis, anise, and some tobbacco leaf notes
  
  taste: great medium/full feel with some elegance possesing tones of leather, dark cherries, cassis, blackberries, and tobbacco leaf
  
  overall: an oustanding wine with a classy medium/full feel. Silky tannins with a fat leather attack and a tobbacco and dark cherry finish

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• 2004 Château Haut-Bailly

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  this was closed for business. Even moving it to one of the bigger glasses and letting it sit in there a while it just refused to offer up much

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The Kracher and the Buller were real treats. It was a lot of fun and really capped off the night well

• 1998 Alois Kracher Chardonnay TBA #2 Nouvelle Vague 93 Points

  Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee

  nose: great and pungent nose with fat tones of apples, caramel notes, honey, and bits of apricots all blending well together in great harmony
  
  taste: wonderful and smooth feel with loads of apple tones, honey, and sweet creamed apricots on the back end
  
  overall: A really wonderful sticky. Great aromatics that translate well on the palate with just the right amount of sugar on this bottle. Drinking perfectly this just posseses a great and big apple attack with a creamed apricot finish

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• 1999 Alois Kracher TBA #3 Chardonnay Welschriesling Nouvelle Vague 89 Points

  Austria, Burgenland, Neusiedlersee

  nose: sweet nose of honey, melon tones, and apricots. This really paled in comparison to the 98 #2 as it was a lot more simple on the nose and didn't have the depth
  
  taste: very nice flavors of honey, melons, and apricot tones. Pretty, but more surface then anything
  
  overall: a very good wine, but doesn't have close to the depth on either the nose or palate that the 98 #2 had. It was more surface on the flavors and palate, but still very tasty, it just didn't bring it to that next level that one would expect from a Kracher

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• NV Buller Calliope Rare Muscat 94 Points

  Australia, Victoria, North East, Rutherglen

  nose: massive nose of caramel, raisins, dates, and loads of dark chocolate with some maple syrup tones mixed in there
  
  taste: bold flavors of caramel, raisins, maple syrup, and dates. Well blended and well defined while still being big and bold
  
  overall: amazing stuff. So pungent with great balance while being pure and having great depth. Bold and brash with a big attack of caramel and a maple syrup finish

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• 2004 Château de Fargues 91 Points

  France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

  nose: light nose filled with honey, lemon juice, nectarines, and white peach tones
  
  taste: good feel, though a bit light with honey tones, lemon juice, and white peach notes
  
  overall: extremely young and very light in the glass. Nice and perfumed that should pick up weight as it ages with a lemon juice attack and white peach finish

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The lineup presented in front of us certainly led to high expectations, and everything was met for me. Lots of great wines that showed off a very elegant and beautiful vintage. For me, this is fast turning into one of my favorite vintages, and we got to taste a bunch of great young wines that showed that they will have the stuffing for the long haul.

Enough about the wines, it was also great meeting a whole bunch of new people and having a steal of a dinner, that just can't be beat