Love it.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to this thread- just found the button to track past posts. I wanted to make a quick comment about the 2003 vintage elsewhere in Europe (I think this was David’s post about three-quarters of the way down the thread), as I have had a very difficult time warming up to many of the regions that other critics have found successful in this year (Bordeaux, Chateauneuf and Port were specifically mentioned). In general, the wines I have tasted from these regions have just been a bit too heady and roasted in style for my palate (I would include most 2003 Burgundies in this generalization as well), and while the best wines in each region have managed to deliver wines that are interesting, they are not my stylistic paradigms for each region. In Chateauneuf for example, I strongly prefer the 2001 vintage to 2003 (or '98 or '00 for that matter), as I find that in general Chateauneuf these days does better (at least in terms of what I prefer in Chateauneuf) in less ripe vintages. For me, a perfect style of Chateauneuf vintage was 1985- so obviously a high octane vintage like 2003 is not going to float my boat.
Even the 2003 Ports, which I find less over the top than the vintage in other aforementioned regions, is not likely IMO to ranked as a great vintage twenty or thirty years hence- the wines across the board to my palate seem to lack a bit of grace in the context of other younger declared vintages of recent memory. I am much more bullish on the tangy, bright and pure 2007 vintage Ports, despite their not possessing anywhere near the same size and weight as their counterparts from 2003.
Which is a long way around to getting back to the 2003 German vintage, which as others here have posted are likely to age quite gracefully and probably prove (along with certain Loire '03s) to be amongst the longest-lived wines of either color to emerge from Europe in this torrid summer. But that said, I cannot really come up with any historical precedent from previous vintages in Germany that might give some indication of how the 2003ers may evolve in the bottle, and hence my inclination to drink some of these wines much earlier on in their evolutionary cycles than I would with other recent German vintages, as I too much prefer my German wines with significant bottle age.
Best,
John
Welcome John. Great to read your comments. I bought few 03 Germans as I found them a bit flabbier on release. Oh well. I did buy a few.
As for 03, your comment on the Loire was interesting. I might agree that the reds were good (if atypical), but the whites, for my tastes, lacked some verve.