Vintage Weather
2003 across the wine world
Every region on record for 2003, read the same way: temperature, rain, harvest timing, and the events that shaped the season.
Northern hemisphere
An unprecedented August heatwave and a very early harvest; terroir decided quality.
April frost and 42C August heat gave a small crop picked from mid August.
Frost then a record heatwave made a tiny, opulent, low-acid vintage.
One long, hot summer and very early picking; dense, ripe wines, uneven in the north.
A scorching, dry German summer; Mosel growers expected an uneven vintage, smaller crop.
Historic heat and 265 mm of rain by August, then a cooler, calm September harvest.
Hottest summer in 150 years, April frost, drought, earliest harvest since 1945.
A wet winter and well-timed rain carried the Douro through the 2003 heatwave.
A cold wet spring ran a month late before September heat compressed harvest.
A hot, dry season that gave richly ripe wines with high alcohol and low acid.
Early budbreak, cold wet April, July heat; a short Sonoma crop of small berries.
Late heat then a cool September gave one of Washington's most admired years.
Southern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere: the vintage year is the harvest year, so the growing season began in the previous calendar year (spring in September to October, harvest in February to April of the vintage year).
A dry, very warm Mendoza summer and a February heat wave gave healthy, ripe grapes.
Drought cut the crush 10 percent; rain arrived as harvest began in late February.