WTN: Two St Emilion from 2003

Vintages like 2002 and 2003 fascinate me, particularly as both have been touted as early-drinking vintages, and yet they are perhaps polar opposites in terms of style. I'm not convinced that 2002 is early drinking at all, just because the wines have less 'weight' than a riper vintage I'm not sure that means they will mature faster, but the only way to find out for myself is to taste, and I have a number of bottles lined up with that in mind. In the meantime though, realising that it may be some time before I can do the same with 2003 I thought I would just pop a couple and see how they are getting on.

Chateau Bellevue (St Emilion) 2003: Annoyingly, the first bottle from my six-pack was corked; thankfully the second bottle was free of any such taint. In the glass the wine displays a maturing hue, tinged with mahogany. The nose is just enticing, a real spice-market melange of cranberry, liquorice, black olive, charcoal, white pepper and more. Quite a firm style on the palate, not the soft and chewy style that I have encountered in the small handful of 2003s (which were from outside St Emilion) I have already tasted. In fact there is a lot of grip here, and a solid backbone of tannins too. Good, evolving suppleness in the finish though, rounding it off in a moderate texture, not too soft or plush though. And it is given backbone by a the wealth of charcoaly extact through the middle and into the finish here. It has a great, grippy length. This is very fine, and still on the way up. Leave a few years. 17.5+/20

Clos Fourtet (St Emilion) 2003: This has a hint of maturity in terms of fading brightness, but no major development in terms of tone, and it still has a glossy suggestion. The nose is very evocative, with notes of roasted plum fruit with the sexy-spicy overtones that right-bank Merlot can be so good at. There is a spicy meat to the nose, along with a fresh brightness, like oyster shell, lifting it above what we might usually expect from 2003. Big, bold and creamy on entry, and against this opulent texture the midpalate hosts a battle between ripe, grainy, slightly sooty tannins on one side and vibrant acidity (where did that come from?) on the other. Full, nice spicy Merlot character, grippy and fairly direct, with vibrant raspberry and pepper tinged elements at the end. Long too. For the vintage, it is remarkable; not the over-the-top unbalanced concoction that might be expected. I like it very much, although it will not appeal to those looking for purity, elegance and the drily savoury style Bordeaux was once renowned for - this is very much 'modern' Bordeaux. Rich and extracted, but not overdone I think. And no rush to drink here. 17+/20

First, an essential footnote on the Clos Fourtet; the last and only time I tasted this was at the 2003 UGC tasting, about five years ago. Looking at my note from then it looks like I under-estimated this wine, or perhaps I have become just a little more tolerant of the modern and extracted style of St Emilion. Or perhaps it just becomes less jarring with some bottle age. And I do find that young St Emilion, especially those that teeter between balance and over-extraction, are - for me at least - the most difficult of all Bordeaux's wines to judge in their youth. So that's my excuse!

Secondly, whereas these wines gave plenty of joy, and are certainly approachable, they remain tannic and primary and I certainly wouldn't think of them as being in their drinking window yet. And yet some left bankers, especially one or two from Graves, have come across as being quite ready, with leafy and tobaccoey aromas, classic mature Graves at only 6-7 years of age, with a softly sweet and chewy structure. Not just ready, but needing drinking I think, reflecting a very rapidly climbing evolutionary curve (and therefore also descent?) in bottle, much more what I might expect from a 'baked' vintage. I have too small a sample size to make any judgements, but does this reflect the ability of the cooler, moisture-retaining limestone and clay soils of St Emilion to cope much better with the heat than the stony, gravelly, warm and well-drained soils around Pessac?

Thanks for the excellent and pondered impressions, as always. As borne out by your notes, 2003 seems like the only vintage of the decade that didn't/won't close down, or did so for only a very short time (to the extent one can generalize), so it must hold clues to the explanation of this poorly understood phenomenon.

I was intrigued at the battle between tannins and acidity because in my way of experiencing they are natural allies, reinforcing each other in the balancing act versus their common foil, sweetness. Whenever the separateness of tannins and acid stands out a bit too much (not saying that was the case here), I ask myself if the acidity was added, certainly a possibility in 03. That could explain its surprising presence.