2003 Chateau Grand-Puy-Lacoste 5eme Cru Classe, Pauillac

The deep gravel soils that you find at Grand Puy Lacoste are not ideal for a vintage as hot and dry as 2003, and you do feel the impact of drier fruits, with fig and prune evident along with more generous blackberry and raspberry. Still has a fresh feel on the finish with fennel, eucalyptus and autumnal leaf aromatics. This is gentle and appealing, softer than many vintages but still with personality and hold. Harvest October 15 to 26, 70% new oak. Tasted 29th Sept - Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux

Very ripe and intense on the nose with a stewed strawberry and cherry character. Full bodied, with a very jammy palate but so much fruit going on here. Ripe fruit dominates this.

Full ruby-red. Quite tight on the nose, hinting at inky black fruits, menthol and tobacco. Dense and supple, with medicinal black fruit, espresso and dark chocolate flavors sweetened by roasted oak. Finishes with huge tannins that saturate the front teeth, and lingering notes of leather, earth and smoked meat. Not at all an overly ripe style of 2003.

Light in style, character and density, this is more than fully mature. Tasters should drink up before its remaining cassis, earth and tobacco essence fades away. Tasted Dec 2013

An atypically superficial effort from one of my favorite Pauillacs, the 2003 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is very good, but it does not stand up to some of the finest northern Medoc offerings. A deep ruby/purple-tinged color is followed by a moderately intense bouquet of black currants and underbrush. It hits the palate with good fruit and medium body, but tails off in the finish. It is an elegant, lighter-styled example of this generally high-class performer. It can be consumed over the next 10-12 years.

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 24/04/2006
Drink 2008-2018
-Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide No 7

An atypically superficial effort from one of my favorite Pauillacs, the 2003 Grand-Puy-Lacoste is very good, but it does not stand up to some of the finest northern Medoc offerings. A deep ruby/purple-tinged color is followed by a moderately intense bouquet of black currants and underbrush. It hits the palate with good fruit and medium body, but tails off in the finish. It is an elegant, lighter-styled example of this generally high-class performer. It can be consumed over the next 10-12 years. (88)

Tasted at Bordeaux Index’s “10-Year On” tasting in London. Even compared to the Haut-Batailley, the Grand Puy Lacoste does not have the same degree of vigour or delineation. Muffled graphite and earthy scents try to offer some glimmer of life, but it seems very subdued. The palate is medium-bodied with a gamey entry. The acidity is quite low and there is a touch of brettanomyces that become more evident towards the finish and this seems to inhibit the fruit. This is one of the very few vintages where I prefer the Haut-Batailley to GPL. Tasted March 2013.

Spicy and cedary. Rounded but still quite firm. Nice fruit sustains the middle, and overall it has a natural elegance. (JH)

72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc. 38 hl/ha. Red with brick at the rim. Vanilla-caramel note on the nose with some dark, pastille fruit behind. Quite full across the palate with punchy tannins that have a drying edge. Sweet-and-sour impression. Still holding up but rather disjointed. (JL)