welcome to the fifty best wines of 2004

 

              The Fifty Best   Presents

 

Wine Enthusiast Magazine
50 Best Wines of 2004
Page 5

41   Sebastiani 2001
Merlot
(Alexander Valley);  $24.  92
A wine that excites, not only for its deliciously gooey flavors, but for the restraint and subtlety of its structure. Those flavors are rich and extracted, ranging from black currants, fine coffee and the ripest black cherries to the sweet vanillins and toast contributed by oak. The tannins are a wonder, sweet and lush, and the finish grows even sweeter.

  Sebastiani

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42   Mount Horrocks 2001
Cordon Cut Riesling
(Clare Valley);  $27/375 ml  92
A tremendous, sweet Riesling, unctuous but not cloying. Smells like ripe green apples; tastes like petrol at palate entry, but melts seamlessly into honey, floral and sweet chalk flavors. Winemaker Stephanie Toole says that it “actually goes with desserts…it doesn’t fight with them.” Amen, sister.

 

43   Beringer 2001
Private Reserve Chardonnay
(Napa Valley);  $35.  93
Rich and concentrated, packed with flavors ranging from Golden Delicious apples through peaches, pears and ripe mangoes. The generous dose of oak provides a blast of vanilla and sweet tannins that are balanced with the fruit. This young wine also has acidic verve that will carry it through five years or more of aging.

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44   Signorello 2002
Seta White Wine
(Napa Valley);  $25.  92
This fabulous blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc approaches a great white Bordeaux in complexity and sheer deliciousness. There’s a lushness and intricacy to the texture beyond the ripe peach, lemongrass, fig and buttercream flavors. The result is balanced, elegant and harmonious, with great finesse. One of the best wines of its type in recent vintages.

45   Staglin 2001
Cabernet Sauvignon
(Rutherford);  $110.  96
One of the best Rutherford wines of the vintage. Dramatically concentrated, everything’s on steroids, but controlled and beautiful. Very ripe and plush, oaky and young, fabulously expressive. Flavors are of black currants, sweet cherries, vanilla, smoke. A perfect expression of youthful brilliance and ageworthiness.

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46   Valsacro 2001
Dioro
(Rioja);  $36.  93
This is a very new wine, but one worth getting if you like the modern style Spanish red. Made from 70-year old Tempranillo as well as some Mazuelo, Graciano and Garnacha, you’ll be digging into a massively roasted, well-oaked bruiser. Caramel, mocha and chocolate mix with full berry fruit to yield a wine of concentration and body. Thick and manly; mature and ready by 2008.

47   S.E. Chase Family Cellars 2001
Zinfandel
(Napa Valley);  $36.  93
Another top-notch wine from this relatively new producer. This vintage is packed with complex, ripe black cherry, blackberry, plum, spice, toast, vanilla, coffee, chocolate and herb flavors, all supported by smooth, supple tannins. It’s lush and long to the end.

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48   Betz Family Winery 2002
La Serenne Syrah
(Columbia Valley);  $41.  94
Dense and plush with exotic scents of roasted coffee, smoke, toast, cedar and blackberry jam, this is very young, showing mostly primary fruits and lots of new wood. But the ripe, sappy fruit, from an exceptional block in the Boushey vineyard, stands out, seamless and pure. Like a racehorse, this wine is sleek, powerful and perfectly proportioned. It offers immense enjoyment as soon as the cork is popped, but will go for a good 10 years in the cellar.

49   Paraiso Vineyards 2001
Wedding Hill Syrah
(Santa Lucia Highlands);  $45.  95
One of the best Syrahs I’ve ever had from this appellation, and right up there with California’s best. Deep, dark and complex, it offers dramatic helpings of plum sauce, leather, blackberry, chocolate, coffee and oak flavors that don’t stop. The tannic structure is a wonder. Completely dry, yet with a fruity sweetness, it’s totally drinkable now and for the next few years.

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50   Swanson 2001
Alexis Red Table Wine
(Oakville);  $50.  95
A Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah blend off the estate. The winemaker says the Syrah brings complexity and backbone, although I don’t know that the Cabernet needs much help. But this is an extraordinary wine. It’s richly sumptuous in chocolaty, black currant fruit, and soft as velvet, but without being cloying, due to the sweet tannins and bracing structure.


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