March 25, 2024 - Opaque, blackish colour! Vibrant, energetic nose of creamy, vanilla black fruits! Dense, tight, youthful palate, tons of pure, spicy black fruits! Not fully mature yet in my book, but a very promising future!
January 20, 2024 - Esasy rich and round with good freshness. But not as sensesional for me like other tn s . Expected much more .
January 13, 2024 - The complex set of aromatics kicks off with smoky cherries, figs, chocolate, espresso, tobacco, licorice, mint chip ice cream, and plum liqueur. Avoiding the often-encountered jamminess of the vintage, the wine offers a sensual, rich, luscious palate experience centered around chocolate-coated cherries, and black plums with salty caramel. The wine is long, concentrated, and showy. No decanting or further aging is required, just pop, pour, and enjoy over a few hours. Drink from 2024-2033.
December 24, 2023 - With Peking Duck @ Ju Qi, Flushing, Christmas (technically Dec 23) 2023.
Excellent. Drank over about 2 hours - would've probably benefited from several additional hours open, was continuing to evolve after 2 hours of air.
October 17, 2023 - Lunch at restaurant. A really nice surprise. This 2003 carried the hot vintage well. Ripe but not oxidative, lovely notes of torrefaction.
September 23, 2023 - Wine of night at Angelus tasting event with 2006, 20011, and 2015. Great nose, terror middle fruit, long finish.
The wine looks garnet colored. The legs are slow. There is light sediment in the bottle.
September 19, 2023 - Great aroma - I could spend all day sniffing this. On the palate there is opulent dark fruit, coffee, tobacco and an oak sheen. This is gorgeous, almost too much. It could be dialed down just a little, which oddly enough would make this wine more sensational. Still, Outstanding.
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: Not much expression at first but not as ripe as the wines before. With time some coffee notes, some toast, ripe red berries, even some floral aromas. The best nose on the red bank tonight. Quite fresh, even a bit acidic on the palate with fairly fine tannins and an airy texture. Ripe red fruit and floral aromas along some minerality. Not overly complex and a bit astringent towards the finish but overall a good wine.
Decanting: This improved with air and I wonder if a solid 1-2 hours in the decanter would have improved things further.
Group average: 92.0 pts
Group rank: Shared 10th out of 29 reds
March 25, 2023 - From magnum. In perfect spot. Great fruit and soft finish of chocolate and tobacco. Great now
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:
Beautifully aged and dense nose with dried leaves, dark cherry fruit, ripe and concentrated but in a pretty good way, nice tobacco flavors. A fruity palate which was nice, but a light mid-palate and rather dry finish keep me from getting more excited.