2004 Bond Melbury

The 2004 Melbury is the most virile, brooding wine in this flight up until this point. Broad but also a bit rough around the edges, the 2004 is texturally lacking some of the finesse found in most other vintages. It will drink well for another 10-15 years, but I don`t ever see it being especially refined. 92 points

The 2004 Melbury comes from Pritchard Hill and is aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. (About 600-700 cases of each of these wines are produced.) The 2004 Melbury is showing even better than it was early on. It is very open-knit for a Bond wine at age ten and that’s a good thing, since we all want to drink these wines in our lifetime. This comes across as a Napa version of the famed Pauillac Pontet-Canet, with terrific licorice, cedarwood, blackberry, creme de cassis, toast, spice box and lead pencil notes in the aromatics and flavors of this drinkable, full-bodied, opulent wine that is strutting its stuff splendidly. It should drink well for another 15 or more years given its sensational richness and overall equilibrium. 96 points