Having been very disappointed with the 2003 version of this wine, I'm not sure what prompted me to pull the trigger on the '04 when the offer came out, but pull the trigger I did... Decanted for about 2 hours now. Right off the bat this is a far better wine than the '03. This wine has a ton of stuff going on in the nose, but honestly? most of it is expensive oak, it smells like the inside of an expensive oak barrel, with not much fruit being allowed out, with graphite, caramel, and cocoa notes. unfortunately there is also a slight green streak that, while not bell-pepperish unpleasant, isn't all that pleasing either. On the palate the wine has is hugely tanninic,and also a disturbing, somewhat bitter streak in the middle. While the texture and structure show signs of promise with cellaring, I'm just not so sure the wine will ever get there. A VERY tough wine to evaluate at this stage, but at this point the wine does not come close to living up to my expectations for a $72 dollar botte of wine. From here on out I'll be sticking with the Cab(s). |