Bordeaux 2004 at Four Years: St Emilion & Pomerol
Completing my review of the red wines of the 2004 Bordeaux vintage at four years of age are the wines of St Emilion and Pomerol. I last tasted the majority of these wines at the UGC tasting in 2006, when I thought on the whole the right bank was a success, and I was particularly impressed with one wine, which was Troplong-Mondot.
Troplong-Mondot wasn’t included in the line-up here, so it is not possible to compare my opinions, separated by just over two years, but for many other wines some comparison was possible. What soon became apparent is that these are rich wines, many showing plenty of extraction, some with deep, chewy and rather inky fruit. One or two wines bordered on over-extraction, a right bank (mainly St Emilion) disease where wines are pushed to the limit, and sometimes beyond the limit. I can only suppose that the winemakers see this as a style that will curry favour and good scores from the right palates. I can’t see any reason why anybody would want to make such undrinkable wines
