2004 Bordeaux

[Thraz]

This is from a store (PJ Wine in NYC), so take it with a grain of salt, but i thought the comments on the vintage were interesting.

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2004 Bordeaux Futures
A Vintage for Elegance and Value

The tower at Château Latour.

The PJ Wine team spent the first two weeks of April tasting barrel samples of the "classicly" styled 2004 Bordeaux vintage. We visited over 60 chateaux, and tasted over 600 wines, most 2 or 3 times. There were re-affirmations of consistent quality favorites, some pleasant surprises and many disappointments as well.

The Executive Summary: The 2004 Bordeaux vintage is largely very good in quality with many of the top producers turning out excellent wines in a more classic and elegant mode. It is not a blockbuster, fruit-forward vintage along the lines of the 2000 and 2003 vintages. It is a vintage less for those who hunger for unbridled fruit and more for those who prefer elegance and a bit of patience in the bottle. It was a very abundant, very late harvest year. Those estates with the foresight and means to do the extra work in the vineyards to reduce yields and wait for full phenolic maturity were able to turn out very good to excellent wines with finesse, concentration, vibrant acidity, ripeness and a full tannic structure. Those unable to do so made wines on the lean and green side with the worst being watery and tannic. The PJ's tasting team has gone to great lengths to separate out the underachievers for you.

For Bordeaux wine lovers the large production and less forward character of the vintage mean there will be attractive pricing on many blue-chip wines—especially for those who prefer elegance over extraction.