2004 Ch. Pichon Lalande

[William P]

I took my wife out for her birthday last week and brought her favorite Chateau. This is not a full review because of the nature of restaurants but it will give you some useful information.

From my experience it has some years to go before maturity. The Som offered to decant but I refused. Decanting will help in the near term.

This is a well built wine. Medium acid. Medium minus for fruit upon opening. After an hour it blossomed to a medium plus. Nicely balanced. The tannins were somewhat course and rustic for the first hour. Towards the end of the bottle the wine came together into a supremely balanced state. This seems to be a Cab dominated Lalande.

The wine I drank had a number of years to go before maturity, at least five I found no tertiary components. On the Palate, dark fruit, earth, and cedar. I have cellared this wine since 2007 so your experience may differ depending on sourcing.

A good wine that will get better. A 92 rating with some room for improvement.


Bill

[JimHow]

Well done indeed, Bill, that actually sounds like a nice cabernet dominated Pauillac from 2004, I think it may be time to crack open my case of 2004 Pontet Canet. I'll hold my 2004 Lafite for a while. 2004 + Pichon Lalande + birthday celebration sounds like a pretty nice night. Interesting that you still see it improving at age 20, I'm thinking this vintage is not as underrated as it once may have been. It is a Bobby Goulet kind of vintage.

[Nicklasss]

Interesting report Bill. I feel like this is why i need to lower my purchases of newer vintage : if a 2004 Pichon Lalande can still get better after 20 yo, when will it be fully ready? When the 2019 will be ready?

[jckba]

I popped one of these recently and it showed aromas black currant, forest floor and cedar tones that led to plush, plummy, dark berry flavors that finished with a drying, mineral herbal edge. And I also gave it 92 points and bought it on release for $60/btl, boy were those the days.