Saint-Julien · vintage 2003
Château Beychevelle 2003
Ageing potential16-19 years
Why this vintage
- The 2003 vintage in Saint-JulienThe historic heatwave halted ripening in young vines: very ripe, low-acid wines, at their best in Saint-Estèphe, where the clays held on to freshness.
- Ageing potential16-19 years
The 2003 vintage in Saint-Julien
Vintage benchmark: 88/100 (appellation benchmark, not a score for this wine)
Vintage character: The historic heatwave halted ripening in young vines: very ripe, low-acid wines, at their best in Saint-Estèphe, where the clays held on to freshness.
Overall reading of the year’s season across Saint-Julien. An estate can depart from it sharply, in frost or hail years, where two neighbours did not make the same vintage. What this particular wine actually gave is on its technical sheet and in the scores above.
Tasting
With a degree of maturity never before achieved, the 2003 vintage is very fruity (black berries, cherries) without any vegetal notes, fleshy, very well balanced with a good length on the palate. The tannins are present, ripe, without marked astringency. Its ageing should still give it fleshiness and roundness.
Blend of the 2003 vintage
- 53 % Cabernet-sauvignon
- 34 % Merlot
- 8 % Cabernet franc
- 5 % Petit verdot
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2003 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 62 % cabernet sauvignon, 31 % merlot, 5 % cabernet franc, 2 % petit verdot — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2003 sheet
- 13 % vol.Alcohol
- 39 hl/haYield
- 25 yrsVine age
Winemaking
The vats are filled and homogenized by pump-over and adjustments by saignée. Alcoholic fermentation in tanks is carried out with selected yeasts and lasts 21 to 28 days. ageing: 18 months in oak barrels, half renewed every year.
Ageing
18 months in oak barrels, renewed every year by half
Terroir
Château Beychevelle, the Versailles of the Médoc, could only produce a wine of excellence. An exceptional 90-hectare vineyard of deep Garonne gravel, a winegrowing tradition going back to the Middle Ages and painstaking work in selection and ageing bring the wine to its full expression. The blend is 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.
An offer on Château Beychevelle 2003
Availability, allocations and terms: the Compagnie Médocaine will reply promptly. The estate and vintage are already filled in in the message.
Texts and documents 2003
The texts below copy in one click for your product sheets, catalogues and social channels. The printable sheet condenses the whole page onto a single A4 page.
Visuals
For this vintage, the media library contains: packshots. High-definition packshots, labels, back labels and lifestyle photos are reserved for clients and partners, on the Compagnie Médocaine’s VinCod media library.
Sheet checked on September 21, 2026. Technical data: the estate’s VinCod sheets. Critic scores: sources cited above, with their date. Vintage benchmarks and character: Compagnie Médocaine’s own editorial read. Soils and relief, where shown: the Compagnie Médocaine’s parcel survey and the Mapbox/IGN terrain model.