2003 Bordeaux Vintage

Figures from the INRA station at Villenave d'Ornon show a cold start: January was 1.1 degrees C below normal with 101 mm of rain against a normal 83 mm, and February ran 1.6 degrees C below normal. March turned after heavy rain from 1 to 5 March (40 mm): the rest of the month brought just 2 mm, three weeks without a cloud and average maximums 4.0 degrees C above normal, and budbreak came at a normal time. April was warm, 2.6 degrees C above normal, with rainfall 50 percent below normal, and the last ten days of May were very hot, often above 30 degrees C. Mid-flowering in the Faculty's red reference vineyards fell on 27 May, 7 days ahead of the 1993 to 2002 average, though flowering was long and uneven, perhaps because of 47 mm of rain in the first days of June. June was very hot and sunny, and on the evening of 24 June violent hailstorms struck about 6,000 hectares, mainly in the Entre-Deux-Mers but also in the Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux, the Graves and some Saint-Emilion communes. July ran 1.3 degrees C above normal, and August brought an exceptional heatwave: for eleven consecutive days, 3 to 13 August, maximums topped 35 degrees C, with some days above 40 degrees C. The first three weeks of August were an unprecedented heatwave, night and day, combined with a worrying drought. Summer rain fell in irregular storms. The vines' water supply was never completely deficient, although some zones suffered excessive water stress that blocked ripening. Mid-veraison came on 29 July, and September was warm with little rain, 41 mm against a normal 85 mm, 80 percent of it in the first ten days. Crop volume was very average, even low for some properties.

Wine Spectator reported on 29 August 2003 that France was seeing its earliest harvest in more than a century, and that growers in leading regions including Bordeaux had not picked so soon since 1893. Haut-Brion led the harvest among the top estates, picking Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon from 13 to 19 August and then its young Merlot vines, and Sauvignon picking began around 15 August on some very early plots. On the Right Bank most estates were expected to pick around 10 September, and at Chateau Cos d'Estournel in the Medoc picking was expected to start around 12 September, two weeks ahead of an average year. In the Faculty's red reference vineyards, the last samples before picking, taken on 5 September for Merlot, showed 238 g/l of sugar, probable alcohol of 13.2 percent and total acidity of 2.5 g/l; the Cabernet Sauvignon samples showed 222 g/l, 12.3 percent and 3.3 g/l. Musts reached a sugar richness never seen, to the Faculty of Oenology's knowledge, across the Bordeaux vineyard, with very low acidity in Sauvignon, Semillon and Merlot, and some musts, especially whites and some Merlots, needed acidification. The few rains of early September raised fears of rot, but hot, dry weather followed and the grapes came in in a healthy state.

For the reds, the CIVB says everything depended on terroir: they came through admirably where soils, for example gravel, clay or limestone, and location, notably near the estuary, let the vines face the summer furnace. Decanter's barrel-tasting report found the Medoc wines got better the further north one went, and that earlier-ripening Pomerol took the full blast of the hot, dry year, with vines stressed and blocked on sandy-gravel soils and leaves withering or even falling, leaving some wines with hard, dry tannins, dilution or an alcohol burn; the stars, generally with more clay, such as Petrus and Trotanoy, made truly stunning wines. Jean-Guillaume Prats told Wine Spectator that 5 percent of the vineyard at Chateau Cos d'Estournel was "asphyxiated" by the heat in early August, but a rain in mid-August gave the vines new vigor. Stephane Derenoncourt told Wine Spectator the drought kept some vineyards from ripening harmoniously, especially on the well-drained Pomerol plateau. In Saint-Emilion, clay-limestone soils held water better than sand and gravel, and Decanter found that a number of estates on the limestone plateau made exceptional wines. Across the Right Bank, drought had burnt out many parcels of Merlot, but producers were raving about their Cabernet Franc.

• Medoc: the wines got better the further north one went
• Pomerol: stressed vines on sandy-gravel soils; clay-rich stars such as Petrus and Trotanoy truly stunning; a year to be selective
• Saint-Emilion: clay-limestone held water better than sand and gravel, and limestone plateau estates made exceptional wines
• Right Bank: drought burnt out many Merlot parcels, while producers raved about their Cabernet Franc

In the Sauternais the vineyard benefited from some welcome summer rain, and the grapes were even picked before the reds. Warm, rainy weather in the first ten days of September set off rapid botrytis on grapes already very high in sugar after August, and humid mornings followed by very hot afternoons concentrated the sugar within days. Some musts topped 25 percent potential alcohol, some properties brought in three quarters of the crop in a single pass, and the sweet-wine harvest was in by the end of September. Many estates picked 80 to 90 percent of their grapes in one pass in 10 days, and residual sugar ran from 150g up to 200g, against 120 to 135 grams in 1990 and around 140g in 2001. The CIVB calls the dry whites exceptional, with a purity and aromatic complexity not seen for more than a decade, and lower acidity that does not upset their balance. Dry whites on clay-limestone generally succeeded and those on gravel were more irregular, and higher alcohol with low acidity gave volume and flesh that may have muted freshness and aromatic power. Decanter found the Graves whites fabulously ripe.

The CIVB sums up 2003 as scorching and often brilliant, with very ripe, powerful, opulent reds, and describes sunny wines with intense color, ripe, velvety tannins and concentrated aromas where terroir coped. The hot summer cut volumes while quality varied from one terroir to the next. The Faculty of Oenology, writing in March 2004, found the reds deeply colored and powerful with rich tannins, not lacking fruit or aromatic finesse as long as the grapes were not picked too late, and hoped for good development with age, predicting that 2003 would be remembered for its heatwave summer, as 1956 is for its winter frosts and 1991 for its spring frosts. At harvest, "It's an exceptionally precocious vintage, but it's too early to say if the quality will be exceptional," Jean-Philippe Delmas of Haut-Brion told Wine Spectator, while Paul Pontallier of Chateau Margaux told the magazine, "It was hot but not overly dry," judging 1998 and 1995 drier.

• CIVB: reds very ripe, powerful and opulent
• Decanter: 2003 was an exceptional vintage in weather terms