2003 Château Margaux
Community Tasting Note
Arch57 wrote:
Thursday, November 9, 2017 - Was looking forward to this bottle for years as I don’t own or get to taste many first growths with a 1990 Lafite being my only other dalliance and a ‘95 Margaux, ‘12 Mouton and ‘12 Haut Brion still in the cellar. It was my 60th birthday and recent tasting notes got me encouraged to open this bottle. I sourced it on release and it was stored at 55 degrees in my small wine cooler since then.
Was a bit worried as I decanted the wine as it wasn’t giving off much aroma but I’ve had plenty of bottles that “transform” after sitting in the decanter. Well three hours later and after my long digression about the classification of 1855 I pour 3 glasses for my wife and son and we toast the occasion. Hmm, the 3 of us are underwhelmed. Well I swirl and sniff and wait for the magic to unfold but the wine was flabby and just ordinary all night. For sure it was a pleasant wine but nothing profound in either the nose or finish, the two attributes I use to identify high scoring wines in my book.
I even popped a $15 2007 St. Emillion Quinault L'Enclos and the nose was similar but it had a less sophisticated finish. Oh well it was another experience in my wine journey but not a memorable one that I was hoping for. The 2003 Ponet Canet we had in March blew this wine away.
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue (4,114 views)
1 comment has been posted
1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue (4,114 views)
Comment posted by PSPatrick:
4/11/2018 10:58:00 PM - Happy Belated Birthday! I am sorry to read that your Château Margaux experience turned out a little disappointing. I had an interesting experience with a 1979 Château Margaux last year as well. A friend served it to me blind and I guessed 1990 classified growth from Margaux as the wine seemed so youthful, so you can imagine my surprise when the bottle was revealed as THE Margaux. My takeaway (that was later confirmed by tasting a few Moutons from different vintages) was that the First Growths deliver outstanding quality in lesser vintages, but that you can match that quality with other Bordeaux classified growths from top vintages - at a fraction of the price. Anyhow, I keep my fingers crossed that your other bottles of first growth will meet you expectations!