Archive dive in five: Decanter April 2004

Spain main feature, April 2004 issue — Our April 2004 cover story was a nine-page feature dissecting the results of the biggest tasting at Decanter to date: 535 wines from across Spain.

(Image credit: Decanter)

Step back 22 years, to April 2004. Google introduced Gmail, Usher and Maroon 5 were on radio repeat and Kill Bill: Volume 2 dominated global box offices.

In sport, West Indian cricketer Brian Lara smashed 400 not out against England in Antigua, which remains the highest ever individual score in a Test innings.

And on newsstands, wine lovers welcomed the 138-page Volume 29 issue no7, of Decanter magazine, priced at £3.40 / $6.95.

The yellow cover, with a glass of red wine eclipsing the sun, shouted about Spain and our biggest-ever tasting: ‘One week, 500 wines, 70 unmissable buys’.

There were secondary coverlines showcasing Decanter Panel Tastings on Languedoc reds and Bordeaux’s 2001 vintage Crus Bourgeois – plus our Decanter Man of the Year. More on that to come…

Inside, these were five things that piqued our interest from the Decanter April 2004 issue.

Archive dive in five

1: Supersize Spain

The late, great John Radford, the leading authority in his day on Spanish wine, asked Decanter if he could request samples be sent to the magazine’s then offices in Fulham, London, to help research a new edition of his award-winning book The New Spain.

Within two months, 535 wines had arrived, becoming the biggest blind tasting Decanter had held in its 29 years, tasted by Radford across five days.

Over nine pages we revealed the top scorers, the best-value wines and Radford’s dream dozen, crowned by Mas Doix’s Doix 2001 (and seven other Priorat wines).

2: From California to… Maryland

Stephen Brook, a Decanter contributing editor (then and now) and author of The Wines of California, was kept busy in this issue.

He wrote a feature on the Golden State’s ‘sensational’ Syrah, a travel feature on Monterey, and an account of his visit to superstar chef Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry – which remains as hard to book a table at now as Brook reflected on then, thanks to maintaining its three Michelin stars for 19 consecutive years.

Under-the-radar US regions also got a look in, with the magazine’s Stateside section featuring top picks from Michigan, plus a four-star tasting note of a Maryland Chambourcin.

Decanter Man of the Year 2004 - Brian Croser

3: The life of Brian

Brian Croser, synonymous with Tapanappa Chardonnay from his beloved Tiers Vineyard in South Australia’s Piccadilly Valley, was honoured as Decanter Man of the Year 2004 [since 2017, recipients are inducted into the Decanter Hall of Fame].

Evocatively written by Huon Hooke, a DWWA Regional Chair for Australia, the six-page tribute, entitled ‘Towering intellect’, recognises just how influential this ‘visionary’ winemaker, ‘charismatic’ mentor, and ‘pioneer’ of planting varieties only in the regions best suited to them, has been in the development of the modern Australian wine industry.

4: Encounters, Dinners and more…

We published reports on the six masterclasses from the two-day Decanter Fine Wine Encounter in November 2003 (Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Ch Cheval Blanc, Vega Sicilia, Veuve Cliquot, Ch Beychevelle and Penfolds) as well as the Decanter Vintage Dinner.

Tickets to this sell-out event were £175, but you did get a welcome Champagne and five-course meal with epic wines – including the 1983 vintages of Mouton-Rothschild and Penfolds Grange – and could rub shoulders with the estate owners and winemakers themselves.

We also plugged May’s The Great French Decanter Fine Wine Encounter where, for £35, winelovers could access the Grand Tasting of more than 60 stands, featuring (mainly Bordeaux) winery principals including Bérenice Lurton (Ch Climens), Hubert de Boüard (Ch Angelus) and Véronique Sanders (Ch Haut Bailly).

Meanwhile, over in London’s Parsons Green in April 2004, experts from around the world gathered to judge 4,500 wines at the inaugural Decanter World Wine Awards.

5: April 2004 new releases

In Decanter’s best mixed case from new releases, the Wine of the Month was Domaine Fontanel’s 1996 Rivesaltes Ambré, Vin Doux Naturel, priced at £9.25. Today, the 2017 vintage will set you back £25.75.

Most of the wines in this Decanter dozen are likely past their best. But if you have a bottle of the 1999 Viñedo Chadwick in your cellar – the first ever vintage of this wine – then not only will it probably still be delicious at 27 years old, but your £34.99 investment in 2004 was a wise one. If you can find it, that inaugural vintage today would set you back about £400.

Is there an issue from the past 50 years you'd like us to look back on? Drop us a line at editor@decanter.com

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Tina Gellie has worked for Decanter since 2008 across a number of editorial roles and is currently the brand's Content Director. An awarded wine writer and editor, she won several scholarships on the way to getting her WSET Diploma, and is a freeman of The Worshipful Company of Distillers. She has worked in wine publishing since 2003, including as Deputy Editor and Acting Editor of Wine International. Before her wine career she was a newspaper journalist for broadsheets in London and Australia.