The 2004 Clos du Château des Ducs has entered into its peppery stage post-bottling and will not delight those who find this vintage “too green” for their tastes- at least at this point in its evolution. But the wine does possess lovely complexity and vibrancy, and I for one will be happy to be pulling bottles of this from the cellar eight or ten years hence. The nose is a very exciting blend of cherries, strawberries, coffee, vinesmoke, fresh thyme, a lovely base of soil and the aforementioned white pepper. On the palate the wine is fullish, complex and tangy, with great transparency down to the soil, fine-grained tannins, tangy acids and excellent length and grip on the complex finish. Give this vintage of the Clos du Château des Ducs at least another five years in the cellar before writing it off, as it is going in a very promising direction in my opinion. 90+