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, dark berries, herbs, earthy notes, woody notes, some leathery notes. On the palate this is one of the more complex wines of the tasting. Dark and blue fruit, even some floral hints, minerality, herbs, some slight oak tones which are not intrusive but add to the complexity.. Structured and fresh and without any fault. Quite complete. I’m not the biggest fan of this winery as the wines here tend to big quite big and opulent. In this cooler vintage, however, this worked quite well (same is true for Peby Faugeres).
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Very modern and surprisingly opulent for a 2004 Bordeaux. More Napa than St.Emilion in style, but still tasty. Still quite young, so no rush to drink bottles anytime soon, I'd easily give this another 15-20 years as it has the acidity and tannin structure for that
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Still young, but starting to offer its ripe, mineral driven, black cherry, stone, and plum fruits, licorice, smoke and earthy character. Give it a 3-5 more years to develop even more textural and aromatic nuances.
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2/24/2024 - Cailles wrote: 93 Points
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, dark berries, herbs, earthy notes, woody notes, some leathery notes. On the palate this is one of the more complex wines of the tasting. Dark and blue fruit, even some floral hints, minerality, herbs, some slight oak tones which are not intrusive but add to the complexity.. Structured and fresh and without any fault. Quite complete. I’m not the biggest fan of this winery as the wines here tend to big quite big and opulent. In this cooler vintage, however, this worked quite well (same is true for Peby Faugeres).
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9/2/2021 - merlotsmile Likes this wine:
Commanderie Bx
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8/6/2020 - G_H wrote: 93 Points
Very modern and surprisingly opulent for a 2004 Bordeaux. More Napa than St.Emilion in style, but still tasty. Still quite young, so no rush to drink bottles anytime soon, I'd easily give this another 15-20 years as it has the acidity and tannin structure for that
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12/11/2018 - Axelpeter wrote: 96 Points
CP)
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4/15/2017 - Jeff Leve wrote: 93 Points
Still young, but starting to offer its ripe, mineral driven, black cherry, stone, and plum fruits, licorice, smoke and earthy character. Give it a 3-5 more years to develop even more textural and aromatic nuances.
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