January 19, 2024 - Spoofilation alert. When I tasted this in 2006, I thought new world and didn’t know where it would go. Based on this bottle, history has not been kind. Nose is all blueberry fruit and oak. If fruit is bitter, hot and short. A mess. Yuck. (83)
December 25, 2023 - Wonderful nose, and tasted pretty good, too, but I was also put off by the slightly acrid finish that DJHAMMOND noted.
November 18, 2023 - Great value for money, not overly ripe as you might expect from 2003, lots of plum and blackberry, drinking very well straight out of the bottle.
October 11, 2023 - I am a great fan of Bellevue, and although 2003 really belonged to the left bank, this performed very well. It has hit its peak, and drinking with minimal aeration. The nose is magnificent and is opulent with wine gum aromas of red berry fruits, and probably its best feature. Likewise the palate is silky and integrated. My only barrier to a higher rating is the finish which is a little acrid. This is possibly down to bottle variance, as I trust Mark's opinion and his bottle was singing.
August 27, 2023 - This one was a real surprise. I really enjoyed it, but very hard to rate. If you told me this was from Napa it would have been a point higher!
So fruity, sweet black berries, so smooth and balanced. The warm vintage really shows through. A slight vitamin smell on the nose when first opening that I rarely notice with Bdx.
Thanks Mark for bringing this one, it was delicious and perhaps fitting for our old/Bordeaux-with-a-bit-of-Napa-thrown-in type of weekend!!!
August 27, 2023 - My 4th and final bottle of this one.....and also the best. Glad Mr/Mrs DQ got to experience it.
This was actually one of our last Jenapalooza Bdx wines poured for our 4 night event and it basically amounted to a pnp. Ready to drink after about 5 minutes of air in the glass. Medium to dark garnet in the glass, no hint of its 20 year age. Initial nose of sweet black fruit with a little of that B vitamin smell that DQ picked right up on and some blue pen ink. 1 hour in and the palate reflects liqueur like red/black fruit with a hint of sweetness, medium + weight in the mouth. It is clean and vibrant and still a bit juicy with excellent balance throughout. It does not feel the least bit old in a night of some really nice, older Bdx wines. I think this one might be my WOTN given its age and balance and still having beautiful fruit going strong. 94-95 for me. Wish I had more drinking like this one is. It's about 3 points better than all my previous bottles.
February 20, 2023 - Decent, fully mature, perhaps a bit ripe.
April 24, 2022 - 2 hour decant does wonders for this one. Enjoyed over 2 more hours with dinner. Becomes a bit astringent at that point and the fruit lowers a bit, so not as enjoyable after the 4th hour. Hard to beat this for 100% merlot at this qpr, though.
December 24, 2021 - Unfortunately there was a whiff of the cork and a slight taint on the finish, and although perfectly drinkable, it is not fair to give a rating.
October 11, 2021 - Horribly corked. Down the drain it went