At the recent Heart’s Delight fundraiser for the American Heart Association, I had the opportunity to sample more than 30 red Bordeaux wines from the 2004 vintage. The moderator, noted Bordeaux wine expert and educator Robin Kelly O’Connor, explained why this particular vintage was truly a victim not of the weather, but of timing.

Referred to as a “sandwich” vintage, the 2004 crop had the rotten luck of being squeezed between the highly acclaimed 2003 vintage and the exceptional 2005 vintage — similar to the questionable timing of the 1987 vintage almost two decades ago. Although the 2004 vintage is not a “blockbuster” vintage, it is indeed a consistent one, where the grapes in both the Medoc (Left Bank, cabernet sauvignon) and in Pomerol and Saint Emilion (Right Bank, merlot-based) produced good to very good wines.