Bordeaux 2004 – St Julien

12 apr: I'm publishing St Juliens next as one of them was the first major château to come out (see Gruaud leads). Look out for many more notes over the coming days.

As you can see from my marks, I found the St Juliens I tasted blind a less exciting group than in many other vintages. Both Barton wines seemed to lack their usual rigour and definition, which may have been a result of unusually high yields (summer pruning is far from established practice here). Ducru Beaucaillou was as strange and exotic as Bruno Borie’s new nightclub-like tasting room...