I have pretty much eliminated all 2003 Bordeaux from my cellar but thought it might be an idea to pull out my last bottle of Cos d’Estournel considered among the best wines of the vintage.
It was not a success; sweet, big and almost totally lacking in character. Alcohol was intrusive, the finish reasonably long. Very disappointing. I left the remaining wine in the decanter, went back after a couple of hours, the same monolithic mess.
Back to the cellar and pulled a half bottle of Montrose 2003. Montrose was the better wine, but it was for me the taller midget. Rich, fat thick, incredibly big and concentrated, it came at me like a Rottweiler. No subtlety, no layers of flavor, and totally unlike any Montrose I have ever tasted. I will say the finish was incredibly long on the plus side, but again one dimensional. I would have classed it as a Parkerized Napa wine, never a Montrose, which usually has a good deal of character.
We did finish the half bottle, mainly because I was too lazy to back to the cellar. The one compensation, the alcohol in these wines was enough for a fine afternoon nap.
And like Alfert, it has no subtlety either! This is a big Sociando, think along the lines of the 1990. Not thin green and weedy like the other crap I made you buy.
Also not a big fan of the 2003. Cos d'Estournal vertical - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers It is interesting. When I first started buying Bordeaux in the 1980s, I would have put Cos slightly ahead of Montrose. Now, it is pretty dramatically the other way.
Slowly sold most of my Bordeaux 2003s all purchased at release. Some people here romanticize about the taming down, but I find that the wines show that they are clearly unappealingly different when tasted in same-producer verticals.
Although, I kept a few Leoville Barton and have yet to dip into my 6-pack of Pontet Canet.
You should start drinking those Pontet Canet, at least a portion of them. They’ve been open and delicious pretty much all along the way up to this point, and while I don’t necessarily suspect they’re about to drop off, I don’t think they’re likely to get even better with more age.
It’s more the lush, low acid and higher alcohol feel of many of the wines.
I had the 2003 PC a couple months ago. I did not like it at all, but some at my table that generally drink Napa Cabs, liked it very much. I have to admit, I did not much care for a recent 2004 or 2000, either, but they are both better than 2003.
I generally avoided most 2003 wines from France. Some Chinons are beautiful, like Rougeard and then Baudry’s Franc de Pied.
The heat and the alcohol were problematic, but as one old timer explained, “the vines got confused and kept shutting down and opening up and then just threw up their branches and surrendered” You have got to love the winemaker/poets.
For what it’s worth, I thought the 03 Pontet Canet was better 5-7 years ago. Bought a case as a future, and the 6 bottles consumed between 2009 and 2015 were much more enjoyable than the 2 bottles I’ve had this year. And as a general rule, I do not care for young red Bordeaux, so this surprised me. Not sure if they’re in a “dumb phase” or falling off…the case has been at 55/70 since I got my hands on it in 2006.
My quarantine cellar inventory has revealed three more bottles of that than my records had shown, giving me five total, so I will open one here in coming days and post a note. The CT notes from 2020 generally remain very positive (with all the usual caveats about CT users and notes), but I guess I can see for myself.
My inventory also revealed a one-off bottle of 2003 Clos Dubreuil that I didn’t know I had. Far less optimistic that will be good - it’s on tap with burgers tonight and a backup bottle close at hand.
My wife and I did just that and discovered a whole case that never got inventoried. How do they escape like that. quarantine is a good time to do inventories.
I actually pulled my only bottle of this on Sunday and splash decanted it after having opened a corked 2003 Leoville Barton. For me, it was at its best within that 1st half hour which luckily coincided with my meal and I actually quite enjoyed it with my prime porterhouse. But I will concede that the longer it was open, the worse the wine got as it seemed to change to reveal a plusher, softer profile that became a little one dimensional as it lost its spice notes which def gave it somewhat of a Napa-esque feel.