Bordeaux 2003 at Two Years: St Emilion & Pomerol

My assessment of the wines of St Emilion and Pomerol at the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux 2003 tasting was, inevitably, a limited one. There were only a small number of the hundreds of right bank estates in attendance, and of these I tasted an even smaller number. Time constraints meant I couldn’t taste everything, to attempt to do so would have had a negative impact on the quality of my interpretation of the wines. Hence I have tasting notes for a biased selection of St Emilion and just two Pomerol estates.

What this sampling suggested to me was that the right bank did indeed have problems, with some St Emilions seemingly over-extracted; despite an often impressive, varietally correct set of aromas on the nose, they had an attenuated presence on the palate. Some showed a brawny character rather than finesse or elegance, although this finding is not confined to the right bank; many left bank wine also demonstrated this characteristic. Of the two Pomerols, both made a very good impression, but this sampling of two top châteaux is obviously too small to allow any meaningful interpretation. (27/10/05)

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