2003 Charmail

For proprietor Olivier Seze, "2003 looks like 1996." And, for a chateau in the Northern Medoc, that's high praise indeed. "The challenge in 2003 was the heat, not drought," he told me. "We had average rainfall in July and August, plus we have a lot of clay in our soils, normally beginning a half-meter or meter beneath the surface. Even the grass between the rows stayed green through the summer." Since the early '90s, Seze has routinely used a tanker truck of liquid CO2 to carry out a full two weeks of pre-fermentation cold maceration. He believes that this step begins the process of breaking down the phenolic compounds in the grape skins without burning them, and is most beneficial for the cabernet sauvignon, bringing greater aromatic intensity and complexity while getting rid of any hints of green pepper. Fully 80% of the estate's production goes into its grand vin, about 100,000 bottles of which are produced in a typical year. "I prefer to obtain good wines every year, rather than to worry about making great wine. Sometimes it's the little faults that give the wine personality, and that show the vintage character," he added. Seze told me that the grape sugars for the estate's merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc were all in the 13%-14% range in 2003. "I was surprised by the aromatic quality of the wine," he pointed out, describing 2003 as very red fruit in character while 2002 was more about black fruits, and drier.