Bordeaux 2004 at Four Years
Described by some as the last affordable vintage, I have to admit that having recently had another opportunity to reassess the vintage, this time at four years of age, I cannot produce a more appropriate soundbite. Other vintages are certainly easier to pigeon hole (although such sweeping statements are always of questionable value), such as 2005 (almost universal success) and 2003 (baked and tannic, although with the occasional truly great wine), but not so 2004. Without referring directly to my previous notes, links to which are provided on the right, the broad characteristics of the vintage that I can throw up from memory are as follows. First, there was a return to a more classic, cool, tannic and reserved style, an obvious contrast to the preceding vintage.
And secondly I recall that although no particular region stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest, those that seemed to have been favoured were Margaux and the right bank communes of St Emilion and Pomerol, although that is not to say that there were not plenty of very good wines in other regions, especially Pauillac. Having retasted a good number of the wines, as well as some not previously encountered, however, I am not so sure of all these assertions; I will explain more in my regional assessments, of which there are three for this tasting which concentrated solely on the red wines of the region (so no white Pessac-Léognan, no Sauternes or Barsac). Perhaps most surprising of all, however, were one or two wines which seemed remarkably different, in style or quality, to my previous notes. Perhaps this reflects nothing more than the fallibility of my palate, but I did wonder in the case of Lascombes whether this wasn’t a symptom of the wine rather than my interpretation of it.
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