Tonight I felt like stepping back into the lovely world of Bordeauxs, and in this case the Saint-Emilion region of Bordeaux. St Emilion, despite it’s newer classification system is actually the oldest region in Bordeaux. The vineyards are in the Saint-Christophe des Bardes region of St Emilion which has been designation by UNESCO as World Heritage. Saint-Christophe des Bardes is located east and slightly north of the city of Bordeaux. The grapes grown in the region are primarily Merlot with Cabernet Franc and a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon also grown. This wine includes a blend of all three from what I could ascertain.
On to the wine. Well I can tell you the first thing about this 2004: It needs to age. Not a little bit, a whole bunch. I’d say after the tasting was done and the bottle consumed that I will not open my other 2 bottles of this vintage for 5 to 6 years. Originally I thought: “Well maybe 3 to 5 years”, but in all reality this wine needs a great deal of time to mature. This is not to say it was a poor wine, or lacking good wine crafting, it simply was too tannic to be opened now. The 2004 vintage in the Bordeaux region was not a highly regarded one, of recent harvests only 2002 seems to be regarded less, but as this is now my 5th or 6th Bordeaux from 2004 I can honestly say that the issue is not as much a lesser quality harvest but more so very uneven product, as odd as that is to say from Bordeaux.
On to the tasting! First note was the colour on decanting, it was very purple/ruby with not a hint of rust in it. The initial smells were distinctly cherry with a hint of black currant. Initial taste followed through with the smells first discovered with a heavy tannin on the finish. Over a couple more sips the wine brought forward more oak and a hint of caramel. Without a doubt the finish stayed with strong tannin in the mouth and oak on the tongue. This wine at this stage would be excellent with Cajun, Creole, spicy lamb, or you can insert a spicy or strong bold type meal here. I would not recommend this to be drank on it’s own in it’s current condition, check back with me in a few years to see if that changes!
Despite it’s youth and need for cellaring it gets an 85 (we will revisit this in a few years)
Mrs.CWG says
“Good thing the meal was spicy, made the wine compliment it well”
