2004 Bordeaux in bottle...good news!

Parker just published his in-bottle ratings of 2004 Bordeaux and I am pleasantly surprised. It looks like many wines were upgraded or remained in the score range they were in already, resulting in them looking like bargains compared to the 2005 and now releasing 2006 vintage.

2004 may be the last vintage for a long time with real values at the top end of Bordeaux. In looking at the wines and their prices, here are some of the wines I consider buys:

- Smith-Haut-Lafitte - 93pts - $39/bottle
- Pichon Baron - 93 pts - $54/bottle
- Lascombes - 93 pts - $45/bottle
- Leoville Barton - 92 pts - $50/bottle
- Leoville Poyferre - 93 pts - $45/bottle

And there are others like Le Gay (93) and Clinet (90) that I believe to be buys at $60 and $50 respectively.

Here's the trick though...run with credit card in hand to buy what's left of the relatively inexpensive 04s. It seems to me that since the release of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate this morning, prices are already rising because retailers are factoring the higher than anticipated scores into their pricing, and consumers are driving demand due to the low prices compared to 05 and 06.

With 04 seeming more successful than universally thought, 2006 will now have an even harder time selling. Many 06s are much more expensive than their 04 counterparts despite scoring lower. This will bode trouble for the already non-existent futures sales for 2006 Bordeaux.

Let me know what your thoughts are. Looking forward to hearing from you.