TN: 2003 Chateau Kirwan

[Rieslingfan]

Several years in the cellar have worked magic on this wine. I have never seen quite this level of transformation. It's still quite ripe, with a bit of a roasted edge, but it now has shed enough fat to expose a structure and allow a subtle earthiness and minerality to enter the picture.

[dstgolf]

What you are describing has been my experience with most 2003 that I have started to drink in my cellar. I think this is a better vintage than the early negative opinion pole led us to believe. Giscours last week was excellent and I've worked through half a case of du Tertre this year and it has been fabulous. Haven't had a disappointing wine so far from the vintage and I've got another 6-7 cases to work through.

Happy drinking.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Didn't that wine seminar blog quote Mr. P as questioning the vintage recently? Is he going to be wrong a second time about the vintage?

[Michael Malinoski]

Totally agree on 2003 du Tertre. It was tremendously good last Monday night and even though it was pretty clear in the blind tasting format that it was likely a 2003, it was the group wine of the night among a pretty impressive peer group of Margaux bottlings (including a surprisingly good '79 du Tertre). By the way, I would like to try more Kirwan. I think 2000 may have been the last one I tasted going back many years now...

-Michael

[stefan]

I still have 91 bottles of '03 red Bdx. We loved the du Tertre early and drank a lot of it. I buy it when I find a good price. None of the '03s we have drunk have been less than good.

I am concerned about the '03 Sauternes. I loved them young. They were very boisterous; almost like eiswein. Now they are more restrained. I hoped that they reemerge in 5-10 years.

[stefan]

>>
a surprisingly good '79 du Tertre
>>

Almost every year du Tertre is surprisingly good. Perhaps we should not be surprised. We are lucky that the quality and consistency of du Tertre has not been recognized by most critics. To his credit, HWSRN wrote in one of his books, "One of the finest values amongst the Bordeaux classified growths, du Tertre has been consistent since 1978". Fortunately, he did not score any vintage 2001 and before above 90 so the point chasers did not drive the price up.