Community Tasting Notes 203

• Bryan F Likes this wine: 92 points

  March 30, 2024 - Excellent aged Bordeaux from a well kept 375 mL bottle. Smooth and gentle with classic cigar box notes. Very enjoyable if you like em smooth with no bite.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• tbrader wrote: 92 points

  March 25, 2024 - Soft nose of cigar box and aged oak. A slight but clear beam of blackberry and current fruit remains. On the finish, very subtle fennel and chalky notes. Wines -- including many fine Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Italian wines -- don't usually hold out this long and well in my cellar; very impressive at this price point.

  Comment

• Somm David T wrote: 95 points

  December 22, 2023 - I am pretty sure I paid $30-$35 a bottle in its first tranche release. Seems Millesima USA is selling it today for $149 a bottle. The reason to collect and age. It is drinking well beyond that price point twenty years from inception or how I always look at wine is eighteen years in bottle. For me, that’s how I decide when to open. How many years in the bottle is its real age.
  
  It is dark cherry, cherry, blackberry, black raspberries, strawberries, raspberries with bright florals. Amazing smoothness, bright violets, excellent acidity and a well, evenly polished finish that pairs with fatty steaks for days. Stupidly perfect from a warm/ripe Bordeaux vintage.

• MJMcCarthy Likes this wine: 91 points

  October 15, 2023 - The bottle showed 0.5 cm ullage below the capsule, but the cork extracted cleanly with an ah-so tool and showed no streaking. It immediately revealed aromatic notes of black fruit, leather and cigar box, even before the first pour.
  
  The wine was deep ruby in the glass, with some bricking at the top of the rim, but less than might be expected from a vintage two decades old. Not surprisingly, noticeable sediment adhered to the inside of the bottle's shoulders.
  
  Aromas in the glass remained true to those initially out of the bottle, with hints of "funk" that are expected from wines of this region.
  The first taste had prominent tertiary flavors akin to its aromas (from the aging), with fading hints of black fruit and notes of wood. Strong acidity and tannins that are firm yet yielding remained in balance, enveloping the palette in a gentle embrace. Fruit flavors such as cassis slowly emerged over a long finish that seemed to stretch for days.
  
  This wine is an absolutely lovely, venerable Bordeaux approaching but not yet at its sunset. It is an old photograph found in a dusty attic, wherein the colors are faded and have blended into each other to create a blurry rather than sharp image, but in which the subject remains discernible, evoking memories from decades ago.

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• racerchris Likes this wine: 91 points

  January 28, 2023 - From 375. Decanted.
  Not much on the nose. Blackberries and earth on the palate, youthful with some grip.
  A lot going on behind the scenes here. Enjoyable but seemingly not yet on full display. Worth holding.

  Comment

Pro Reviews 10

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2003
• Type Red
• Producer Château d'Armailhac
• Varietal Red Bordeaux Blend
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country France
• Region Bordeaux
• SubRegion Médoc
• Appellation Pauillac
• UPC Codes 088586001864, 3364420020572, 3419466143508, 3475380044840, 3550871202753, 400005854484, 400005995064, 649944051527

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 45 (1%)
• In Cellars 2,242 (53%)
• Consumed 1,969 (46%)

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