2003 La Romanee

Bernard Hervet, who has an amazing stock of well-stored old bottles in the Bouchard cellars, compares the historic 2003 vintage to 1959, 1947 and 1865(!)."We can reproduce a vintage like 2002 every five years now, but 2003 only every 50 years," he told me.Bouchard harvested on the early side in '03, bringing in virtually all of its fruit between August 21 and September 1.Hervet noted that the ripening speeded up during the second week of August, and that because the domain's vines average at least 30 years of age there were very few problems with stressed young vines.Winemaker Philippe Prost avoided adding acid during the vinification because he "did not want to destroy the balance of the must," but he did correct a few wines, almost entirely from the Cote de Beaune, after the malos in early spring.The overall objective, Prost told me, "was to protect the purity of the fruit.Our target in 2003 was not to produce Rasteau." Finished acids are on the low side, but the pHs are sound, as there wasn't much potassium in the fruit, says Hervet. Most of the 2003s I tried in November were already in bottle.