2003 Burgundy Vintage

A wet end to 2002 left a good reserve of water in the subsoil, especially in clay-rich terroirs, and a mild early spring brought budburst in March. When temperatures fell below zero on 11 to 12 April, the frost damage was devastating, and much of the vintage came from second-generation fruit. Flowering then came early and successfully. As spring turned into summer it got hotter, reaching 42C in August. It was not totally dry: there was rain from time to time but no hail, and only the youngest vines in exposed sites suffered from hydric stress. There was little respite at night in the first half of August. After a storm on 25 August, temperatures returned to normal. Picking began on 14 August in the Cote d'Or, almost a month earlier than usual, and many grapes were picked after only about 80 days on the vine against the standard 100. The crop was 25% below the average of the previous five years.

• Frost hit hardest in the generics below Meursault and Puligny and the village, premier and grand cru vineyards above them; cooler St-Romain, Pernand-Vergelesses and the Hautes Cotes suffered less
• The Cote Chalonnaise had hailstorms in June and July and nine consecutive August days around 40C
• Chablis saw temperatures up to 41.7C and an average of 30C from June to August, with the harvest date set for 25 August
• Heat and a relative lack of rain gave small, thick-skinned grapes with large pips, further cutting volume

Coates judged 2003 better in the Cote de Nuits than the Cote de Beaune, and most successful in communes with a high proportion of clay: in general Pommard rather than Volnay, Corton and Nuits-St-Georges rather than Vosne-Romanee, and Gevrey-Chambertin rather than Morey-St-Denis. Small factors mattered: bunches on north-to-south rows were scorched for a shorter time than south-facing bunches on east-to-west rows. For whites, Coates pointed to cooler ground, and Robinson named Pernand-Vergelesses, the Hautes-Cotes, St-Romain and St-Aubin.

• At Domaine Marquis d'Angerville in Volnay, pickers cut off sunburnt south-facing grapes, while north-facing bunches gave small quantities of fine, fresh juice
• Coates called the whites disappointing from Chablis to Pouilly-Fuisse, heavy and deficient in normal acidity, and found balance only in cooler areas unaffected by the frost
• Andrew Jefford wrote in Decanter that Maconnais whites seemed to withstand the heat better than those further north
• Cote Chalonnaise yields were 22.8% down for black varieties and 21.6% down for whites against the five-year average

Growers split into two schools. Many rushed to pick, usually in the cool of the morning, and Coates rated the wines of Michel and Frederic Lafarge splendid. Others, remembering 1976 and fearing unripe tannins, waited; Laurent Ponsot picked from 7 to 14 September, and Coates called his wines delicious. Domaine Chandon de Briailles picked its Corton-Charlemagne on 15 August because the Chardonnay had already reached 14.5% alcohol, and Bouchard Pere et Fils picked on 21 August. Growers who could refrigerated their grapes as soon as they were picked. Oenologists counselled adding acid, but most quality-conscious growers added little or none and saw acid levels rise during fermentation.

• Coates judged 2003 not a year for excessive new oak, long cask ageing, or long extraction and the usual amount of pigeage for reds
• Many August-picked red musts were low in acid and high in tannin, with rather unripe phenolics
• Negociant Lucien Lemoine was vehemently against late picking and said he kept freshness by pumping small amounts of carbon dioxide through the lees

Coates found that after a year in cask the wines seemed less southern and more expressive of terroir than at the outset, and called the reds, rich in colour and high in alcohol with tannins largely surprisingly ripe, pleasant if atypical wines for the medium term. In its December 2004 release, the BIVB said regional wines could already be enjoyed, villages and premiers crus needed a few more years, and grands crus were built for keeping. Robinson, writing in January 2005, expected many wines, especially the whites, to develop rapidly, and even the finest reds to go through several unpredictable stages.

• Successful and unsuccessful wines sat side by side even within the same domaine, with vineyard conditions often more telling than price
• Coates wrote that the name of the domaine on the label was the most important criterion for the reds
• Some white cuvees, marked by very ripe Chardonnay and Aligote, would need drinking quickly, the BIVB warned