Bordeaux 2004: A 20-year retrospective

‘Drink the small wines in the great years and the great wines in the small years’, is received wisdom in the wine collectors. A recent horizontal of the 2004 Bordeaux vintage suggests there might be a blade of truth to this old saw.

Tasting through the wines of the 2024 vintage from Bordeaux points up many of the region’s contradictions: some very good wines still show ageing potential, and others are less successful and appear long past their prime. Some demonstrate modern technique and style, while others seem to come from another era.

One overarching theme is evident – there is a lack of consistency, with delicious wines and less successful ones from both the Right Bank and the Left Bank. There is another overall theme, however – the 2004 wines, when available, are often inexpensive and excellent value, warranting a look from value-conscious wine lovers.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for the Bordeaux 2004 retrospective

The growing season

In a nutshell: a late ripening year with rain at harvest time but a yielding a substantial crop.

The weather in Bordeaux in the 2004 growing season was a bit of a puzzle. It was preceded by a warm winter in December and January, but the end of February and the beginning of March were cold.

Temperatures rose at the end of March, provoking bud burst. April and May were wet, but the sun and heat returned in June to cause a rapid, thorough flowering that set a large crop on the vines in sunny, hot weather – a promising start.

July continued sunny, but temperatures dropped, slowing ripening. August was wet and warm, drawing out the véraison (the colour change of the grapes from green to black), and the process was not complete until the end of August.

September was largely dry, with warm temperatures turning cooler mid-month. Picking for the Merlot generally began the last week in September, although some producers waited until October.

Cabernet Franc followed. Fairly heavy rain began on 6 October, just in time for the start of the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest, and continued through the end of harvest.

In the end, 2004 was the latest harvest since 1988. The vintage was seen at the time as a return to classic style. Many wine lovers still recall with concern the excessive heat and miniscule yields of the 2003 vintage, and 2002 had also been a small crop due to rain at flowering, and a season plagued by rain and low temperatures.

Accordingly, the trade was ready to love the abundant 2004 vintage. Three factors, however, give rise to apprehension over quality. The first was the rain in August, which caused the grapes to swell before they had fully ripened, diluting the fruit. This effect was seen throughout Bordeaux, although there was more rain on the Right Bank than on the Left.

The uneven ripeness is another issue; the effect seems magnified with the passing of 20 years. The less-than-perfect ripeness seems down to the fact that the crop load was at times excessive in 2004.

Bordeaux expert Bill Blatch opined at the time of the harvest that more estates should have de-budded more aggressively and, ideally, should have done two green harvests. These viticultural practices were not as widespread as they are today, and growers would have been loath to drop fruit after the tiny harvests of 2002 and 2003.

The final point was the rain during the harvest, which ran from 6-20 October, according to Blatch. Rain at this point in the season is less dangerous than earlier in the year but necessitates careful sorting after picking.

Style and Quality

Over the years, the group I taste with regularly has done horizontals of several vintages, including 1982, 2003, 2005, and others; this was our first retrospective of 2004. The group has also done vertical tastings of the first growths and several ‘Super Seconds’.

In my experience, it was difficult for the 2004s to show well in the vertical tastings, but comparing ‘apples to apples’ in this setting helped me realise there were some attractive wines indeed, and a number of the 2004s rose in my estimation.

Another take-away, however, was that the wines of this vintage generally seemed mature, particularly in contrast to the 2003s, which are very generous, and the 2005s, some of which are not yet opening up.

The maturity was exquisite in some instances, while in others, it struck me that the wines had seen better days and were beginning to drop off.

It was interesting to see these two dozen wines compared to each other. In vertical tastings, the 2004 vintage is often overlooked, since it can be eclipsed by the strong 2003 and 2005 vintages on either side. Comparing ‘apples to apples’, my esteem for Mouton, Haut-Brion, and Margaux from 2004 has risen.

This effect is not uniform, however: I enjoyed tasting Lafite, Latour, and Cheval Blanc 2004, yet was not moved to new heights of admiration.

Perhaps the most agreeable surprise was the strong performance by top ‘Super Seconds’ Pichon-Lalande, Montrose, and Léoville-Las Cases, and their right bank equivalent Vieux Château Certan – all of these are wines I would actively purchase today for quality, value, and ageability.

Wines that might have appealed as values on release have sometimes faded, such as Malescot-Saint Exupéry, Brande-Cantenac, Pavie Macquin, and (surprisingly) Pontet-Canet.

My final impression of the 2004 vintage overall was that these were truly ‘classic’ in every sense—tannic wines with moderate alcohol, fresh acidity, and fairly restrained fruit character.

They lack the exuberance of the best of the 2003s or 2005s, but neither do they suffer from the over-concentration of the former or the often hard tannins of the latter. If carefully sourced, the best of these wines will provide claret fans with marvellous values that can still improve in the cellar.

The tasting

It was again my great pleasure to share a weekend of reflecting on the results of the vintage thanks to the generosity of Atlanta-based collector Mark Taylor, who has hosted a weekend in the spring for many years now that has become one of the most sought-after invitations in the country.

The roughly two dozen tasters have considerable experience and insight, but none are stuffy, and there is no hint of the competitiveness that can afflict some wine collector events.

This event is the epitome of Southern hospitality, charm, and courtesy. Many of the tasters are local, but top professionals from around the country also join.

The wines are tasted semi-blind: everyone knows the theme and which wines will be presented, but the wines are checked for cork taint and decanted by a panel of three, and the order is known only to them.

They are tasted and discussed leisurely, with a dozen wines each afternoon spread over two hours. Tasters comment on style and quality and may hazard a guess as to the identity, although no one is forced to do so. Each flight of six concludes with a vote on the popularity of each wine.

See tasting notes and scores for Bordeaux 2004

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