Community Tasting Notes 32

• JJYoyo Likes this wine: 93 points

  October 8, 2023 - 4 hr decant. Opened with trepidation since right bank 2003s get a lot of opprobrium. This had a lot going for it — a little of everything: blueberry, coffee, cinnamon and clove, indeterminate florals (well, I couldn’t be more precise at least ). Is it a transcendent wine ? No, but it’s damn good and to me a very good showing in a challenging year. Avoids the obvious pitfalls : This is not stewed, over extracted, jammy etc at all. It doesn’t hit the heights of a great wine in a great year but it does show some pedigree. Maybe it will get better with more age — Ausone is a trickster — but I have my doubts about that. As it is, the worst thing I could say about it is that it is generically classy.
  Score: 93-94. Relative to expectations: +

  Comment

• Cailles wrote: 89 points

  May 7, 2023 - Bordeaux 2003 – 20 Years On – 33 Reds: All wines tasted blind, not decanted (some wines would have needed it). Observations: 1) 2003 is not a good vintage. The wines don’t have the depth and elegance of good years. But I was positively surprised, that while it’s clearly a hot year, there are less overripe, over-extracted and prematurely dying wines than in 09/10. Still, there is no comparison to how Chateauxs handle hot years today. 2) Compared to five other vintage retrospectives, the 2003 came in last place (lower average score than 2011), with just Chateau Margaux reaching a group score above 95pts. 3) Margaux wines showed best, with the typical immediate charm, while St. Estephe and Pauillac have potential but will need more time (and/or would have needed more air). 4) Right bank wines did not show as good with some alcohol showing and a few wines being on a downhill path. I would not chase 2003 right banks.
  
  TN: Quite ripe, even a bit alcoholic. On the palate some fine red and blue fruit. Quite fine, quite round, much better than the nose. However, there is not much complexity and again, with a bit of air the wine dries out quite a lot and the acidity takes over. Disjointed and 89 pts is rather generous. Another right bank heavyweight that didn’t show well at all. There is quite a disconnect between this bottle and our group score (89.8pts) vs the 96+pts it gets on average here on CT but I’ve had this wine 2 years ago and then too it was drying out and on a downward path.
  
  Decanting: This didn’t show well at all and time didn’t help. Others here decant it for quite some time and have better experiences, I would listen to them (decant for 4 hours).
  
  Group average: 89.8 pts
  Group rank: Shared 24th out of 29 reds

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• sirpat00 wrote: 90 points

  March 20, 2023 - Grand Bordeaux 2003 horizontal tasting (Fribourg): Bordeaux 2003 vintage horizontal hosted by a private collector and moderated by Jean-Marc Quarin. Main observations: 1/ Average quality is acceptable, but weighted down by various low-lights, esp. on the right bank. 2/ In general a tannic vintage, lacking balance. 3/ Top 3 wines were Lafite, Mouton and Margaux (all 95). See the tasting story for a complete overview and additional vintage comments.
  
  Tasting note:
  Ripe dark cherry fruit with some red elements, but also some unripe features. This even felt close to dipping over into beef juice territory. Aeration helped to shed much of this, however, and revealed espresso notes. Ultimately ended up being quite ok, especially vs an underwhelming Pétrus.

  Comment

• joshabramson Likes this wine: 95 points

  October 9, 2022 - Youthful and primary, took several hours of air to open up. Big and dark, with sweet ripe fruit that’s nicely balanced with firm, silky tannin and medium acidity. The warmer vintage shows, but not at all overdone. This is serious wine but at this stage I think it’s more about potential and isn’t quite there yet for my taste. Nice and easy drinking and still quite delicious at the moment, but I’d personally want to revisit in 10 years to see more complexity and secondary notes coming through.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• King Julien wrote: 97 points

  July 24, 2022 - Decanted 4 hours. Very smooth, well intgegrated and easy to drink, great nose and palate. Wonderful for a couple hours until gone.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 10

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2003
• Type Red
• Producer Château Ausone
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Libournais
• Appellation St. Émilion Grand Cru
• UPC Code 000002263168

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 63 (3%)
• In Cellars 1,725 (71%)
• Consumed 638 (26%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine