TN: 2003 Duhart Milon Pauillac

[BordeauxNut]

Dark, healthy garnet color. Nose is very powerful. Green coffee bean I associate with Pomerol. Some smokiness, a bit of the '03 praline quality, oak/vanillin and a touch of heat and very light volatility -- but, nothing offensive. Savory and round on the palate, but less generous than the nose might suggest. Light on the palate. While I have always really liked the complexity on the nose of this wine, I'd be nervous about holding this too long. I liked it more on release.

[Nicklasss]

The last bottle of 2003 Sociando and Duhart I had, let me exactly the same feeling as you BordeauxNut : i preferred them younger or nearer to their release.

Nic

[Blanquito]

This was so good (and cheap) on release, one of the few 03s I was wild about early on. I quadrupled my money on a bunch of these in the Asian Lafite stable crazy in -2010. I still have 4-5 bottles though.

[Claudius2]

Guys,
I need to be careful what I say about 2003 as criticism of this vintage seems to upset some here.
I bought several CC Bordeaux from 2003 including Montrose, Pontet Canet, Lafite, Duhart, SM, probably several others I can't recall.

Several of them tasted terrible on first attempt - dry, burnt, hot alcohol, coarse finish, whatever.
Maybe they tasted like cheap wines from the MIA or other irrigation areas in Australia (my old country).

Some did taste pretty good when young - and it was PC that got the WOTY award here.
I tacitly agreed. I thought Montrose was the best on early tastings followed by Lafite and PC.

Well, I have now tried several top wines from 2003 and some I have tried many times.
The vintage was bizarre (for Bordeaux) and the wines to me never really tasted like Claret.
I have drunk 2003 PC now 10-11 times - the last remaining bottles can wait for some time to see what develops.
AS they have aged, most have gotten worse, not better.
Okay, some will say "well I had a Chateau xxxxx 2003 and it was great".
Big deal.
I have had wines from poor vintages that were great as well. 1984, 87, 73 whatever.

So I now have only one or two PC's left as a social experiment and sent the rest to auction including the 6 bottles of Duhart that remained.
I never really liked the wine - it was hot and burnt on the nose yet the fruit was dry, coarse and had an unpleasant character that reminded me of a soybean or pea.
With a few years it just seemed to get looser in structure and lighter on the palate.

I would rather have Bordeaux from a cooler or wetter year that still offers something that taste like Bordeaux than a hot, alcoholic, and burnt tasting dead fruit wine from 2003.

by the way, the warm Aussie areas in 2003 were also a bit of a disaster.
It meant that there was some shut down of the vines due to heat stress and that is where the green, prickly character comes from in Bordeaux as well.
In the Barossa, some picked early to avoid the heat making green tinted, rather nasty wines, or alternately, made high alcohol, burnt wines that were too common in Bordeaux in the same year.
So to me, 2003 is always an anachronistic vintage in Bordeaux that maybe belonged to the central valley in California or the MIA in Australia.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

How's the auction market for 2003s? Do they still sell on points or on hot, alcoholic, and burnt-tasting dead fruit flavors?

Mark, the only note in your comment that sounds out of tune is, when I have a great wine from any vintage it is in fact a big deal--to me. It wouldn't matter if it was from a great year, a merely atypical year or an atypically lousy year. Otherwise I think people make way too much out of the date on the label, except that the date can often make all the difference in the price. Otherwise, as you say, "big deal," or as I might say, "who cares?"

It is somewhat along these lines, but what has always kind of gone over my head is the fascination with the very ripe years in Bordeaux, which to my taste seem less like Bordeaux and more new worldlish than the average year--which may be becoming scarcer with time.

[DavidG]

I bought very few 2003 because of the heat issue and early criticism. I got a couple of bottles of Cos and Pavie specifically because they were controversial. A few bottles of Pichon Lalande because it is a perennial favorite. And a case of Pontet Canet based on Jim's exhortations.

I loved the Pontet Canet immediately on release, before I had any expectations of Bordeaux complexity. Bottles opened over the next 10 years were more about potential than greatness. They weren’t hot or stewed or candied or grossly over-ripe to my palate. I thought they just needed time. The most recent bottle, 6 months ago, still wasn’t showing any real complexity. It’s been 15 years and I’m still waiting but I think/hope it will get there.

The first bottle of Cos a few months ago was huge and uber-ripe but not quite raisiny. Grossly over-ripe to an AFWE palate or a classicist. Probably identifiable as Bordeaux if placed in a flight of Napa cabs, but would appear obviously out of place in a flight of classic Bordeaux. I liked it a lot for what it was, but it wasn’t my father's Bordeaux. Not surprised at the controversy.

The first bottle of Pichon Lalande, opened a year ago, was pretty classic Comtesse. Nothing about it fit the criticisms of 2003.

Have yet to try the Pavie. I’m a bit frightened of it. Maybe for Halloween?

That’s not enough experience for me to make pronouncements about the vintage in general. Some wines got very ripe and were atypical, but not all.

[jal]

A 2003 Branaire Ducru opened two months ago was really mediocre. After being so good the last time I had it in 2012, that was very disappointing and it reaffirms what Claudius said.

[JimHow]

As Bob Parker, Alex Rychlewski, and I have told you guys many times, it is better to drink Bordeaux on the younger side.

[AKR]

I don't think I've ever tried the 2003 Duhart Milon.

I loved that hot year in the Northern Rhone though.

Had a lovely plump 2003 Colombier Hermitage a couple of weeks ago.

Very big but wore its oak well.

I've been looking for their 2015 lineup and they do not seem to be widely distributed unf.

[Claudius2]

Arvind
The Syrah based wines of the northern Rhône did better than Bordeaux or Burdundy. Though I did not buy any as I just could not get over the prices partly due to Parker’s high points for some Cote Roties and Hermitage.

I think one reason I don’t like the hot French vintages much is that the wines taste too much like Barossa or McLaren Vale. And as I lived in Australia for 50 odd yrs I could always buy them cheap any day.

DavidG
Stocking up on 03 Medocs was a wine folly for me. Like you I thought PC and others tasted great on release yet somehow never bloomed. I have 2 left and am going to leave till at least 2023 but I really regret buying them. I sold several others at auction at a loss which is rare for me.

Jim
I think it comes down to the style you like but I have often asserted that cooler Bordeaux vintages get overlooked too easily and many wines can be very enjoyable at good prices like the 07 Lagrange St Julien I just finished . Same goes for 2002 which is affordable now and produced many nice wines.

[JimHow]

I think it comes down to the style you like but I have often asserted that cooler Bordeaux vintages get overlooked too easily and many wines can be very enjoyable at good prices like the 07 Lagrange St Julien I just finished . Same goes for 2002 which is affordable now and produced many nice wines.

Amen, brother.

[marcs]

The 2003 Poyferre we had at the last BWE was fine but young I thought -- had not "bloomed", but was very recognizably Bordeaux and seemed to have a lot of potential. It's not that uncommon for left bank bordeaux from a big year not to be fully ready at 15 years old -- e.g. 2000, 2005 might end up being that way.

I've had some great 2003 Branaire Ducru it's a shame to hear it may not be aging well.

I have the 03 PB and Cos lined up to taste this winter, we'll see. I've always been concerned about 2003 aging because the tannins in some wines are rough. But I've just never experienced the across the board "badness" of the vintage that some find.

[AKR]

I've drunk a bunch of 2003 Branaire, probably have 2-3 bottles a year, and think its ok.

It does not have the wonderful richness of Sociando or the St Estephes of that year though.