Producer note: In November, 2003 I remember Dominique Lafon telling me that he was certain that his 2003s were going to be exceptional. Then he winked and said "but in what sense, I can't say!" On my next visit in February, 2005, he describes 2003 as "a vintage where the terroir is slowly starting to come through. It was tough for a lot of reasons but the frost caused the heaviest losses in the vineyards. For example, I usually produce 35 to 40 barrels of Charmes (roughly 900 cases) but this year, there are only 14. Happily, I produced exactly the same amount of Montrachet as I did in 2002 because there was no frost there. As to the wines, they at first seemed heavy and over ripe but during the course of élevage, they've become more agreeably elegant. We began harvesting on August 22nd and it was necessary to very carefully sort. Sugars were very strong for the whites as they averaged between 13 and 13.8%. Because the wines were already so rich, I did absolutely no bâtonnage at all, which may have contributed to the extremely slow fermentations. I did touch up the acidities on most if not all of my whites but I didn't touch the reds. As to longevity, while no one really knows and I'm not predicting anything either but the '03 whites may age much better than people believe today. I say this because they are remarkably stable. I of course haven't bottled them yet but when I pull barrel samples, they can be left out unprotected literally for days with no diminution in quality. Time will of course tell but this aspect alone suggests they will at least be good over the medium term. Tasting note: The most obviously wooded wine in the range with pronounced pain grillé notes highlighting gorgeously complex, moderately ripe white flower, green apple and pear aromas that merge seamlessly into generous, pure, powerful, taut and sweet full-bodied flavors that display a wonderfully silky texture and huge length. This quite transcends the vintage and despite the size, weight and ripeness, it reminds me rather of a hypothetical blend of the '02 and '03. In short, this is a knock-out wine that should see its 20th birthday in great shape.

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