2003 Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
To be honest, I was a bit worried whether this 2003 might be overripe and overdone due to the vintage, but it wasn’t … Drunk over three evenings, during which time neither the bouquet nor the palate budged … A nose of cassis, smokey bonfire, stewed plums and garrigue, with tar and a touch of black pepper. In the mouth, rich, unctuous, powerful and flirting with surmaturité and roasted fruit, but saved by elegance and silkiness. The winemaker has managed to retain some freshness. Red cherries, dark chocolate, espresso, liquorice and plums. Also some beef stock. Big boned, weighty and dense. Alcohol a relatively reasonable 14.5% (no alcoholic burn on the finish). Sleek and pretty seamless but with some slightly bitter, grippy, tarry tannins on the finish. Others will no doubt rate this wine higher than me. About there now for optimal drinking, I think, but no hurry needed. (92 pts.)
I have had a few and I find them very pleasant. Were some of them slightly more pruney than others? Yes. Were they obnoxiously so? No. In my experience, the quality houses did a good job and the inferior producers were . . . inferior.
I have become less consistent about writing notes and I have had a lot more than these, but here’s what I have:
2003 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (9/19/2016)
Consistent with prior. Still powerful and holds the hot vintage well. Keep hands off the rest as long as possible because this will explode in a good way. (94 pts.)
2003 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (12/8/2015)
This is an outstanding wine that reflects the warmth of 2003 but does not have the prune streak that some wine suffer from due to the heat that year. Very meaty wine with a lot of garrigue/spice/herbs. Some dark red fruit and outstanding balance. Note a raspberry drive grenache, with just a but of dark berry in the background. (94 pts.)
2003 Domaine St. Benoit Châteauneuf-du-Pape Grande Garde- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (11/19/2011)
60 minute decant. Begining to take on tertiary characteristics of eathiness and leather to go with the scrub brush garrigue. The up front fruit expected from the very hot and oft-criticized 2003 vintage either was not there or has faded. Relatively light all around. It does not ooze fruit flavors but there’s some there to back up the herbal and earth component. A good value at $19.99 from WL in 2005. (88 pts.)
2003 Domaine de la Mordorée Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée de la Reine des Bois- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (9/10/2011)
Decanted, put back into bottle 30 minutes later, opened 2-1/2 hours after that and enjoyed over 90 minutes at X2O. Peter X. Kelly’s great restaurant in Yonkers. This is a wonderful wine that is no where near its peak. There is raspberry cream and the herbal underpinings of a Chateauneuf with a lot of spices, some pepper, and cherry in the background. The tanins are not as fierce as they apparently were three years ago, but they are still there with enough astringency and bite to let you know that this wine has at least 5 years, maybe more, to reach its peak. From the scorching heat of 2003, this wine is from fully ripe and intense grapes, wuith very dark color and its fair share of alcohol. However, the alcohol did not knock me for a loop as doe some other wines like this because the fruit and spice balance kept it at bay. The web site reports that the 2009 is Grenache 80 %; Mourvedre 10 %; Syrah 5 %; Counoise 2,5 %; Vaccarese 2,5 % from 60 year old vines. The 2003 may be similar, I don’t know, but it is obviously predominantly grenache, as evidenced by the classic raspberry. This is truly outstanding. Glad I have 5 more. I will not touch the next one for at least 2 years and I expect it to still be on the up curve. (94 pts.)
2003 Domaine St. Benoit Châteauneuf-du-Pape Grande Garde- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (11/14/2009)
This bottle was starting to oxidize just a bit, which is ridiculous, but the flavor was not bad and overall I enjoyed the wine. I think the cork was not the best because it imploded into the bottle when I tried to use an Ah So. On the palate, there was raspberry, cherry, and a spicy herbal component with a bit of sherry oxidation. You could see it in the color as I decanted because it had an ever so faint orange tint to it. I do not know what the alcohol level was, but it deid seem to hit me more than other similar wines, so I would guess it was on the high side. I have more bottles of this ($19.99 a WL 4 years ago) and I will try another soon. I hope this was a fluke because I think that if there were no oxidation, this would rate about 89 points, but if it is dying after 6 years I will be annoyed. (84 pts.)
2003 Clos Saint Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (2/6/2009)
A very nice CNDP that may be closing down a bit. Fruit is a bit subdued but in exchange there is meatyness and stuffing. May be closing down a bit but still very nice. (91 pts.)
A couple of fellow wine buddies of mine are going to open 2003 Clos de Papes, Pegau, Janasse VV and Mon Aieul and see if these have hopefully held up better than the rest of 2003 CDP which I have used to cook beef stews the past couple of winters.
95+pts which is about 20-30pts higher than most 2003 CDP. Lets just say the only other CDP I own is from 2004 and I have had a couple of those that were stew potential!
I opened another 2003 which made the Clos des Papes look better in hindsight:
2003 Domaine de Beaurenard (Paul Coulon et Fils) Châteauneuf-du-Pape Boisrenard- France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Very ripe aromas of dark cherries and other black fruit and mocha, a bitter melted road element and some spicy oak. On palate, very ripe and rich. Lots of black fruit, a little stewed. Blackberries, prunes, cherries and dark plums. Also, coffee grounds and black pepper. There is a sweetish edge that detracts. Well proportioned and balanced but with less freshness than the 2003 Clos des Papes. Quite tannic. Drying tannins on the finish. Perhaps this wine would improve with a little more cellar time? (90 pts.)
2004 was a better vintage for many producers IMO. Hot and dry but not as scorching as 2003 and good harvest conditions. An overlooked vintage. Same with 2006 and 2007 - I prefer the first. And some 2008s were really nice, although that was a rainy vintage early on.
The taste for the 03 vintage is really a special one. In most cases, if you liked an 03 wine young, you will like it now. Indeed, given the fact that they are what they are, I do not think they have aged badly. If one liked the 03 Clos des Papes in 05 or 06, when it was released, I doubt one will not like it now. It is no less objectionable to me, but also no more so. Some of the wines have gone over the hill, but, really, I’m surprised that more of them did not do so. There is no CdP, among domaines I like, at least, that I do not prefer the 04 to the 03. But I have to admit, I have had Pegau, Marcoux and Charvin from 03, all with some pleasure.
I’ve loved most of the 03 Pegau’s I’ve had.
I thought most of the Mon Aieul’s I have had had been very good as well.
I bought a lot of the 03 Clos des Papes and the early ones I had were a hot stewy disjointed mess. In CT I saw that people either loved this wine or hated it. Rumor was there were multiple lots bottled. I’ve let my remaining rest for a long time. A couple weeks ago I brought a mag to a party and it was utterly sublime even better than RP 97 point rating. So not sure if this a different bottling from my 750s. It is time to revisit my remaining bottles and if it is anything like the mag I’ll be ecstatic.
I also love Janasse VV from that vintage.
Wasn’t there a marathon thread on squires about 2003 Clos de Papes? About how the fire in the Avril winery allegedly could have influenced the quality of the bottles.
Look at Leves notes on 2003. They are very incinsistent
I have had many good and a few bad 2003’s from Clos de Papes
I did see a rather cheeky Parker re-review of the 03 recently and I thought of this thread:
97 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
“While I’ve always loved the 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape, it was extremely controversial in its youth due to its exuberance and ripeness. Yet today, with the wine at maturity, all of that controversy has been put to bed and I know of no one contesting the beauty of this wine…(9/15)”
Yes, the Clos des Papes is well liked by most Grenache lovers, and the note from Jeb (Dunnuck) reflects the general impression of perfect bottles.
Robert Parker did comment around 2013 that he intended to drink his remaining bottles (still talking Clos des Papes) within 18 months.
A clever decision since most 2003’s peaked before, or around the age of ten.
The Mon Aieul, which I liked best when it was around 6-8 years old, was already on the verge of decline (still of course IMO), when I held my “Ten Years Later” tasting in 2013 of the 20 very best CdP from this irregular and most extreme vintage.
Tried to drink my last bottle of Mon Aieul a year ago, but it had now turned into a poor Banyuls dominated by BROWN, sluggish fruit, prominent alcohol, bitterness and unresolved tannin.
Down the drain it went…
But Pegau (NB ONLY if you drink bottles which have NEVER been subjected to any - even ever so short - spells of heat) is still as gorgeous as ever, and Gerhard P. will probably be able to drink his self-transported, and well stored bottles for as long as he wants to
Having a 750 tonite and I’m not ecstatic. It is not a bad wine but certainly nowhere near what I had from a mag a few weeks ago. Palate is particularly weak. I am convinced there are two populations of this wine and besides one mag I got the ones that sucked. Can’t win them all. I have a few Mon Aieuls left and hope they are still hanging in there.
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