February 24, 2024 - Bordeaux 2004 - 20 Years On - 33 Reds: All wines tasted blind, not decanted. Observations: 1) 2004 is a mediocre vintage overall, with many pleasant wines, but without the depth of better years. 2) At the top, the vintage produced some classic, old-school wines with lots of freshness and fresh fruit. 3) At the lower end, many wines lacked fruit and ripe tannins, resulting in some astringent and slightly drying wines. 4) An alarming number of Right Bank wines (5 out of 16, no Left Bank wine) were oxidized, including some heavyweights like Petrus, Evangile or Figeac. An unacceptably high proportion of faulty wines. 5) I’m not sure that the 2004 are currently in a good phase, many of my scores were lower than in previous tastings. The question is if it’s just a weaker phase or the beginning of the end. 6) At the top and the only wine >95pts was a layered Le Pin (rated 96pts), with a charming Vieux Chateau Certan, a surprising Issan and Clos l'Eglise, as well as an elegant Lafite sharing second place (all rated 94pts).
TN: Late in the tasting, I didn’t take detailed notes anymore. I did not enjoy this bottle which didn’t have enough fruit and was quite astringent. The bouquet had a pleasant fruit/minerality interplay and deserves some credit but on the palate there was not much. 84/85pts for the nose?
February 3, 2024 - just a little loss of back bone and fruit but still enough.Very pleasant to drink for another year or two.
June 30, 2023 - I just like Batailley even in weaker years like this. But the 1996, and especially the 2000 and 1994 were significantly better that night.
June 30, 2023 - Faded rim just taking on a hint of orange.
Spicy aromatic nose, cardamom, cinnamon, tobacco,
Spice continues on the palate, highly aromatic, fruit a little faded and stewed. Soft tannins, maybe drying out a tiny bit but this is very nice. Holding up well for nearly 20 years. Did I mention the spice?
December 27, 2022 - Jetzt super im Trinkfenster.
December 25, 2022 - Very traditional and classy Bordeaux. Tannins, pencil and fairly restrained fruit. My last bottle but not very dissimilar from what I recall from my last bottle three years ago. There would probably have been room for improvement with further cellaring, or at least development of tertiary aromas that were not very prominent now.
March 17, 2022 - Maybe drying out a bit, this holds up well but is far from an assault of mature or ripe fruit and has a clipped finish that makes me think further aging may not reward. Some quite sour tannins. Obviously lots of cedary pencil lead notes you’d expect from a batailley, but overall this has never really impressed.
February 13, 2022 - From a half and still pretty fresh with red and black fruit. Tasted after the 1998 Batailley (from a bottle) and the 2004 certainly has more years ahead but just didn't feel quite as complete, although it improved after an hour in the decanter.
October 31, 2021 - pretty darned delicious for a good value 17 year old bordeaux. Still has some pretty fruit aromas. A nice soft supple palate. Harmonious right now.
April 3, 2021 - Excellent after 17 years!