2004 Beausejour Duffau-Lagarosse

Shiny dark ruby. Rather bretty and subdued. Sour and old-fashioned. No fruit. (JR)

Performing better out of bottle than it did from cask, this brilliant terroir has produced an elegant, dense ruby-colored, medium-bodied 2004 (2,666 cases) with complex aromatics of raspberries, blueberries, crushed rocks, and spring flowers. Not a powerful, muscular effort, it reveals pure, sweet fruit in its delicate personality. Give it 1-2 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 10-15.

Medium red-ruby. Aromatically expressive nose offers plum, tobacco, earth, tomato, mint, flowers and underbrush. Pliant and rather suave, with berry, fresh tobacco and menthol flavors framed by an edge of acidity. There's nothing hard about this '04, which finishes with fairly light tannins.