Self Isolation : Day # 41

2003 Château Beychevelle

The ‘Grand Vin’ from this Saint-Julien based estate in Bordeaux is a bit like James Bond: muscular and powerful yet timeless and elegant. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes on the left bank of the Gironde Estuary where the soils are more gravelly, allowing for greater drainage and thus slightly warmer temperatures that allow the later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon to reach full ripeness despite the continental, maritime climate of Bordeaux. This is important as the Bordelaise can count on rain arriving around the end of harvest, usually around September or October. Rain is never good during harvest, as it can cause grapes to swell, diluting the flavor or even causing grapes to burst, attracting pests and disease. Across the estuary on the right bank the soils are more clay heavy. This isn’t a problem for Merlot, which ripens earlier and can handle a slightly lengthened growing season as a result of the slightly cooler temperatures found around clay-based soils.

The 2003 vintage will be remembered for the intense heat waves that swept across Europe mid-summer. This extreme heat caused many grapes to ripen unevenly and the resulting wines have mostly been slated for early consumption as they lack the necessary acidity for aging. While smaller estates and those focused more on large production of table wines can find it hard to navigate a tough vintage, the top estates will usually always release their best wines, though in limited quantity. This is especially the case in Bordeaux, where the top estates own large parcels of land in different locations allowing them to be selective in grape sourcing.

Château Beychevelle is one of these top estates and their 2003 was textbook left bank, needing about an hour in the decanter to open up. The nose offers aromas of leather, cigar box, cassis, plum, black cherry, raspberry, and dried tobacco leaf. On the palate, the full-bodied frame gracefully lingers, coating the tongue with flavors of red and black fruits, baking spices, leather, cigar box, and earth. Delicate tannins and elegant acidity keep the wine from being too ripe and jammy, a common problem for the heat wave vintage. Mild sediment in the bottle hints at the wine’s potential life span though it was thoroughly delicious with seventeen years of age under its belt.