The guide to the best wines of the 2003 vintage
Are you looking for a wine from 2003 to mark an important date or celebrate a birthday, the 20th birthday of a loved one for example? The 2003 vintage is a great vintage in many regions and appellations and offers beautiful wines for laying down that have kept well in recent years. La Bouteille Dorée offers you this guide to help you find the bottle from 2003 that will really please its recipient.
Bordeaux 2003
The 2003 vintage is a very good vintage for Bordeaux wines, with wines of varying quality depending on the appellation due to the climate: a very dry spring and summer and high temperatures day and night, more than 60 days with a temperature above 30°C and in August, Temperature peaks of 45°! The vines suffered from the heat and drought and fortunately life-saving rains fell from mid-August. September was perfect with warm but normal temperatures and some regenerative rains.
The results are therefore different depending on the appellation: the north of the Médoc, Saint-Estèphe, Saint-Julien and Pauillac offer exceptional wines and Saint-Estèphe in particular where the clay soils retain moisture better, Margaux and the Haut-Médoc do a little less well but still offer great successes, Pessac-Léognan also offers excellent wines but in reduced quantities due to the low yields caused by hailstorms, Saint-Emilion is a great success and even exceptional on deep limestone soils, Pomerol is less well off because the vineyard has suffered a lot from the drought and finally Sauternes and Barsac give exceptional, dense and rich sweet white wines.
Burgundy 2003
In Burgundy, the mild winter and spring resulted in an early flowering. The summer of 2003 saw very hot temperatures at the end of June and a drought that lasted for three months. This caused damage, on the one hand on the youngest vines whose roots are shallower, and on the other hand on the vineyards exposed to the south-west such as Chassagne. Nevertheless, in the region as a whole, with fairly low yields, the great red wines are superb and very expressive and perfectly tolerate cellar storage for several more years.
Rhône 2003
Another wine region blessed by the gods in 2003 with excellent climatic conditions. The great red wines, in the north as well as in the south, Côte-Rôtie, Cornas, Hermitage or Châteauneuf-du-Pape, are very well balanced with very beautiful fruit and offer a very long ageing potential. The yields were only a little tight and the wines are therefore quite rare.
Champagne 2003
2003 but is perhaps not one of the best Champagne vintages but it is a good vintage, both for Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, which made it possible to produce good brut d'blends and also great vintage champagnes.
Alsace 2003
Alsatian wines of great expression and a 2003 vintage with a very long ageing potential. The development of noble rot has allowed the production of magnificent Vendanges Tardives and Sélections de Grains Nobles.
Other successes of 2003
Among the great successes of the 2003 wines are:
- Elsewhere in France: the great sweet and sweet white wines of the Loire (Montlouis, Quarts-de-Chaume), the natural sweet red wines of Roussillon, Maury and Rivesaltes.
- In Europe: A small vintage in northern Italy, 2003 is a magnificent vintage for the great red wines of Rioja in Spain.
Find all the bottles of 2003 currently on sale
Find all the bottles of 2003 currently on sale at La Bouteille Dorée. All these wines from 2003 are in stock in our cellars and can be delivered in 24 hours throughout France and even during the day in Paris. If you are looking for a particular bottle in the 2003 vintage, do not hesitate to contact us at info@labouteilledoree.com or at 01.46.22.29.79.
