2003 Château Pontet-Canet Pauillac Bordeaux France Wine Tasting Note

Take a good cigar, dip it in dark chocolate, add a bushel of red and black currants, blackberries, cedar and lead pencil, and you have the perfume. Full-bodied, ripe, round and lush, with layers of fruit on the palate, this is fully ready-to-go. Drink from 2022-2032.

6,333 Views   Tasted Nov 8, 2022

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With a smoky tint, licorice, mint, burnt embers, cassis and a touch of oak to open the nose, the wine gets started. Full-bodied, round, fat and rich, with a blast of sweet, ripe, cocoa and dark chocolate dusted, crisp dark red and black fruits with a hint of dried herbs in the finish. With time, the texture became even more opulent. This is drinking great today. There is no touch of heat, jam or overripe ripe characteristics in the wine. Decanted for an hour, (which is all it needs) this is fully ready to go.

I love the early accessibility of the vintage. The wine already shows notes of tobacco, dark, red fruits, forest floor, cigar box and a dab of truffle. The tannins are soft, smooth and feel great, as the ripe, berries lubricate your palate. The blackberry and cassis finish sticks with you adding more earth, smoke and tobacco along the way. The wine was decanted about 45 minutes to 1 hour before serving, which was just fine. 2003 is not the vintage of the century. I am not sure who claimed it was. But whoever uttered those words was wrong. But there are several truly great wines from the vintage, most of which come from the Northern Medoc. 2003 is the first vintage in the modern, Tesseron era where the vineyard started to shine.

I love this wine. It's a Pauillac of pure pleasure. With a potent nose of cassis, tobacco, boysenberry, hints of blue fruit and a shot of truffle, the wine wants you to get to know it. And you do as soon as it hits your palate with its luxurious textures and sweet, ripe cassis, spice and blackberry. I really like how this is developing. And it should only get better from here. The wine was decanted about 45 minutes to 1 hour before serving. It shows best with some cellar chill left in it.

This is really nice juice! With just 30 minutes of air, the wine softened, opened up its earthy, black cherry, cassis and cigar box charms, leaving you with a soft, silky finish.

With an hour in the decanter, the wine popped with all its chocolate covered fruits, earth, black cherry, cassis, and cigar box. The wine is lush, full bodied and concentrated. The tannins are soft. Complexity and character are in full force in this one, young Skywalker.

The best showing ever for this wine. I am not sure of it was the perfect bottle, flawless cork, or the right amount of decanting, about an hour, but this bottle rocked me! Ruby in color, with blackberry liqueur, cassis, earth, stone, burnt wood and barbecue aromatics never let up. The palate was bathed in luxurious, plush blackberries, boysenberry and dark chocolate, which moves to fresh cassis flavors in the finish. This note is being written after close to 5 hours in the glass and it's still as good or better than the first sip. For a Pauillac of this quality, this is a steal in the marketplace.

The first truly outstanding wine produced since Alfred Tesseron took over managing the estate. Soft, smooth tannins pair perfectly with the tobacco, cassis, earth, smoke and blackberry profile, leaving the tasters with the desire for sip after sip of this beauty.

Tobacco, earth, smoke, cassis, fennel and blackberry aromas pop with little effort. On the palate, the wine is rich, concentrated, powerful and balanced. There is a softness and polish to the tannins. Unlike many wines from this unique vintage, the wine is maturing at a reasonable pace, which should allow for years of positive evolution.

Beautiful, deep ruby in color, 60 minutes in the decanter brought out the tobacco, cassis, chocolate, blackberry, cigar box and earthy, aromatic bouquet display. Concentrated, full bodied, deep and round in the mouth, the long finish is packed with juicy ripe, cassis and mocha. There is little bit of roughness to the otherwise, polished tannins. This is drinking in its adolescent stage on its 10th birthday. Another 3-5 years will add a lot more nuance and complexity. Give it a few more after that and it should reach full maturity. The first great vintage from Alfred Tesseron is the precursor to 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010! They are on a roll!

With an hour of decanting, tobacco, earth, cassis, blackberries and spice scents were all over the place. Soft, refined and polished tannins and a lush, cassis filled finish can be enjoyed today, or aged for another decade or two.

Popped and poured, which was fine. But 30 minutes of air would probably have allowed the wine to open a bit more. Still, there was no denying the beautiful, ripe, clean blast of cassis and blackberries, with earth, tobacco, cigar box and gravel aromatics. Full bodied, rich, ripe, round and concentrated, the wine ends with a long wave of sweet blackberries, cocoa and cassis. You can drink this now, or in 5, 10 or 25 years. It's a delicious expression of 2003 Pauillac.

Lush, opulent and already expressive, this forward styled Pontet Canet is filled with tobacco, cassis, earth, forest floor, cedar wood and fresh blackberries. The tannins are ripe and round. With so much glycerin and sweet, ripe, lush fruit, each sip feels great as it crosses your palate. Due to the open style, you can drink this now. However, additional time will add a lot to the experience... that is, if you can keep your hands off this delicious Pauillac for that long!

Decanted for two hours and tasted over the next two hours, the perfume offered cassis, licorice, earth, truffle, smoke, black plums, earth, cedar wood and green peppers. Full bodied with voluptuous textures, the wine finishes with a rich, refined, cassis, chocolate and juicy black plum finish. While not mature, this beautiful Pauillac is delivering a lot of pleasure and will only get better over the next several decades. If you have a case and want to see where the first outstanding vintage from Alfred Tesseron is at, you will not be disappointed. This is my best score for this wine yet. Over the next decade, it might even go higher!

This vintage from Alfred Tesseron that put Pontet Canet back on the map. Spice, cassis, stone, earth, tobacco, chocolate and truffle scents open to a generous serving of ripe, juicy, blackberry and cassis. Soft tannins and layers of cassis with a touch of olive make this a very enjoyable Pauillac. At 8 years old, this is already starting to drink well.

With decanting and coaxing, this full bodied, lush, opulent Bordeaux wine started opening revealing light cassis, blackberry and earthy notes. The palate showed more life with multiple waves of blackberries and cassis. The finish must last at least 40 seconds and every sip keeps you involved. 10 years will add a lot of complexity to this wine... if you can keep your hands off it.

Perfectly combining elegance and power with a fleshy exotic, ripe, dark fruit filled personality.