2003 Chateau Lynch Moussas Pauillac 750 ml

The 2003 vintage in France was once incredibly controversial.

Dubbed “La Canicule,” it was the hottest summer since 1540, and it sparked as much wine-trade speculation as any vintage we can remember. Was the growing season too warm, or was it just the equivalent of a typical year in Napa Valley? Above all, how would the wines age? Only time would tell. 

Today, nearly two decades on, we know that 2003 was packed with great wines. 

Robert Parker, writing in 2014, noted he found the greatest consistency and successes in northern Médoc appellations like Pauillac, going so far as to call top efforts from the region “sublime.” He also pointed out that the harvest month of September was normal for Bordeaux, and that most Médoc wines came in at a modest 13% ABV. In the end, he characterized the best of the vintage as “a treat to drink,” praising them as “opulent, fleshy, rich and stunning.”

In other words, those who avoided the vintage missed out—and created a huge buying opportunity for the rest of us. 

We’ve taken full advantage of that opportunity, nabbing a château-direct tranche of the 2003 Château Lynch-Moussas Pauillac. Cellared at the estate, boasting beautiful black-cherry and tobacco aromas, a gorgeously integrated palate of strawberries and dark chocolate, and a lovely, lengthy finish, it is drinking perfectly nearly 20 years after harvest. At less than half the price of fellow Fifth Growth Lynch-Bages, it’s a helluva buy in mature Bordeaux.  

Open this bottle with friends and family to enjoy with a rack of lamb cooked over the hearth and garnished with grilled cèpes and compound butter, as the Pauillacois do!