Community Tasting Notes 205

• Eric wrote:

  March 23, 2024 - 2004 Bordeaux at 20 years courtesy of Mark Taylor; 3/23/2024-3/24/2024 (Atlanta, GA): Green, tobacco, chocolate covered cherry, some ripe dried fruit notes emerging, lean, not so giving, vitamin pill, very tannic finish. The least giving wine of the flight. My #6 and the group #5. Guessed incorrectly as the Quinault L'Enclos.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Cailles wrote: 89 points

  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: Medium expressive nose with green bell pepper notes mixed with fine red strawberries. Quite intriguing and delicate. On the palate mostly strawberries, some green herbal notes, some minerality. Not that layered. The tannins are round but the acidity is quite high and not well integrated and towards the finish the wine is drying out.

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• Oliverl1 Likes this wine: 86 points

  October 7, 2023 - Purchased a few bottles from retail at $59 per bottle. On paper it seemed like a good price, but in reality, that’s what they were worth. A little disappointed. 2004 wasn’t a great vintage but I expected a little more from this very good chateau. I recently bought half a case of their 2002 and that was much better… And 2002 was not as good as 2004. Interesting. Wine isn’t an exact science, but I was disappointed.
  
  An all-round good wine, but noting to write home about. It seemed its best after about 8 hours in the decanter.

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• guitarkim Likes this wine: 90 points

  August 28, 2023 - Consistent with earlier note. Nice wine!

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• grossie Likes this wine: 93 points

  June 12, 2023 - Open for business! Dark wine, pretty opaque. Nose of charred dark fruit, graphite/stones, maybe a bit of chinese spice. Great mouthfeel, it's very luscious. Long pleasant finish with little grip, but the tannin and acids hold this up very well. This might be better than the 03 version of the same wine! A classic modern bordeaux (maybe that's a bit of an oxymoron, but it makes sense to me)

  1 person found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 11

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2004
• Type Red
• Producer Château Branaire-Ducru
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Médoc
• Appellation St. Julien
• UPC Codes 000000144018, 087000347083, 3364420020633, 3419466148923, 3760114631145, 3760114631152, 810910020261

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 41 (1%)
• In Cellars 2,252 (55%)
• Consumed 1,774 (44%)

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