Chateauneuf du Pape |  |
Chateauneuf du Pape | |
The 2003 vintage seems to be a love hate relationship with consumers and a number of wines are controversial. Some people report bottles being raisiny, roasted and laced with lighter fluid while others find them (sometimes from the same bottle) massively fruited, balanced and rich. For the most part, this is one of my favorite vintages going back to 1990 and at the top of the heap, the wines are absolutely stunning with huge fruit, texture and length.
Spring frosts limited the crop size prior to the scorching summer and the last rain of the summer occurred on May 15th. While the region is use to hot temperature and drought, this vintage was record breaking with extremely high temperatures. 107 Degrees Fahrenheit was the reported high temp in Orange and there were consecutive 100+ degree days in august. All of Europe saw the effects with both Bordeaux and burgundy producing atypical, ripe and fruit filled wines and anyone watching Lance Armstrong suffer in the July heat during the Tour de France will have a clue what it was like. In the Rhone, stories abound about domaines hand watering and the younger vines seemed to suffer the most.
While tasting through these wines, it’s hard to miss the exuberant fruit and almost heady ripeness. The top wines are massively fruited and concentrated with lofty (although not that atypical) alcohol, ripe tannin and relatively low acidity. On the bottom end, wines can seem hollow, roasted and muddled but occurrences of these wines seems more gossip than reality. With the slew of old vines and quality wine making, Chateaunuef faired the best in this weather and if you stay to the well known domaines, you can’t go wrong with this vintage. As you expand outward into the Cote du Rhones, Gigondas, Vacqueyras and other villages, you need to be more selective.