Pouget, Margaux Fourth Growth dodged (very well) the 2003 heat wave!
The appearance is typical Margaux with some bottle age: a clear medium garnet with ruby colour highlights followed by aromas of black cherries, tobacco, with a hint of cloves and subdued vegetal fern notes.
Of medium body, this supple wine touches the palate with a refreshing acidity and, most surprisingly, is followed by a restrained alcohol presence when one would have expected a more burning sensation in light of the prevailing weather conditions (heat wave) in Bordeaux for that 2003 summer.
The wine has fine-grained tanins, now well polished, and a wood imprint in the background allowing for the black cherry flavours to come to the forefront highlighted by a fun hint of bitterness to please and stimulate the palate.
No tertiairy notes to blow the cover on the age of the wine, one can only be intrigued to see that after fourteen years already, and from a difficult hot vintage to boot, nothing, no fatigue or premature ageing of sorts cast a shadow on this bottle of Margaux 2003 Pouget.
The wine has a medium length, no complexity here really, just pleasure, and a silky texture to caress the palate and remind us that Margaux owns the word “elegance” or, as they say over there: “l’élégance margalaise”.
Start drinking it now and, for maximum pleasure, serve it with a nice piece of meat, nothing too intense such as game or lamb for that matter. We had it on a crusted aged rib and you should have seen the five smiling faces around the table…
Bordeaux 2003 vintage is quite a trickster and my experience so far has been surprisingly pleasant, contradicting my initial (intellectual!) educated guesses and apprehension…
More simply: with wine, one should stop thinking and start tasting (!) Grab a few bottles my friends and see it for yourself.
In Vino Veritas!
In Vino Veritas!
Link to the French version