Black Lion Wine Club - 2004 Bordeaux Tasting
Home in St Albans
Tasted November 14, 2014 by Andrewbdc with 484 views
Introduction
Tasting of 2004 Bordeaux with Charles, Jon, Tony, David, Rob and Michael. Good chance to compare and contrast various wines I had in the cellar (plus a couple of others provided) 10 years on from the vintage.
Flight 1 (7 notes)
Red
2004 Château Malartic-Lagravière
France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan
Clear, dark crimson, narrow ruby rim. Clean nose, intense fruits of blackcurrant and prunes (especially 24 hours later), vanilla, cedar. Medium palate, quite sweet, soft tannins, low acidity, well integrated and quite elegant. Medium+ finish. In its ideal drinking window.
Red
2004 Château Saint-Pierre
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Clear and bright, medium ruby red, lighter ruby rim. Clean nose, quite sweet and intense fruits - blackcurrant and blackberry, liquorice, graphite, cocoa, some spice. Medium palate, tannins quite evident but well integrated, fruits still to the fore, good structure. Medium finish. Very good, plenty of life ahead of it.
Red
2004 Château Léoville Barton
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, St. Julien
Slightly cloudy, dark crimson, narrow brick red rim. Clean nose, sweet dark fruit, blackberry to the fore, intense, cedar and tobacco. Well integrated medium palate, tannins and acidity evident but quite well-balanced. Longish finish. Good but probably not as good as hoped/expected. This clearly needs more time to develop greater complexity.
Red
2004 Château d'Issan
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Margaux
Clear, dark crimson, narrow brick red rim. Clean nose, very intense jammy fruit, vanilla, smile, menthol. Full palate, quite meaty, hints of pepper. Medium+ finish. Overall a bit too much in your face for my taste, possibly over-extracted and over-worked. I wonder if this will come together better with time.
Red
2004 Château Batailley
France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac
Clear, dark crimson, narrow brick rim. Nose suggested the bottle was defective, certainly very dusty with no fruit. Similar on the palate. Can't rate it based on this bottle.
Red
2004 Château L'Arrosée
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Clean, dark bricking red, wide ruby/brick rim. Clean nose, dark cherries and blackcurrants, some spice, especially cinnamon. Medium palate, sweet and soft, lacks structure and definition. Medium finish. Disappointing.
Red
2004 Château Milens
France, Bordeaux, Libournais, St. Émilion Grand Cru
Clear, dark ruby red, wide lighter ruby rim. Clean nose, quite complex, dark fruits, cedar. Medium+ palate, quite soft but well balanced and integrated. Long finish. Excellent, with plenty of life left in it.
Closing
Overall, lots of nice wines, but with no real standout successes and no particular commune/region standing out. No one wine impressed everyone, although Chateau Milens, Chateau Saint Pierre and Chateau Malartic-Lagraviere stood out on the upside, whilst Leoville-Barton and Arrosee were a little disappointing. Sadly, the Batailley was flawed so we couldn't compare a Pauillac to the others. Chateau d'Issan was the least refined.
Having said that, we had a great evening and I'll certainly be enjoying seeing how the wines in my cellar develop from here on. There isn't any hurry to drink up.
© 2003-24 CellarTracker! LLC.
