Margaux · vintage 2003
Château Durfort Vivens 2003
Ageing potential20 years and beyond
Why this vintage
- The 2003 vintage in MargauxThe 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 potential20 years and beyond
The 2003 vintage in Margaux
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 Margaux. 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
The 2003 vintage is a powerful wine with an intense purple color and violet highlights. Aromas of very ripe fruit along with spiced notes of pepper are underpinned by an elegant minerality. Although the vintage suffered from the heat, this wine expresses a great deal of freshness on the palate, paired with ripe fruit. A convincing example that a hot vintage can produce wines that are elegant, ripe and fresh.
Blend of the 2003 vintage
- 61 % Cabernet-sauvignon
- 34 % Merlot
- 5 % Cabernet franc
Shares for this vintage, as recorded on the 2003 technical sheet. The vineyard itself is planted with 83 % cabernet sauvignon, 13 % merlot, 3 % cabernet franc, 1 % muscadelle — a vintage blend departs from the area under vine as the year dictates.
Figures from the 2003 sheet
- 13 % vol.Alcohol
- 29 hl/haYield
- 30 yrsVine age
- 120,000 bottlesProduction
Winemaking
The new facilities were designed to optimize plot selection and the management of vinification. Fermentation in small concrete vats for plot-by-plot tracking.
Ageing
In cask for 16 to 20 months, 45% of them new.
Terroir
Situated in the communes of Margaux, Cantenac and Soussans, the Durfort-Vivens vineyard puts down its roots on deep and particularly poor gravel rises. These gravels were deposited by the successive beds of the Garonne in the Quaternary era. This great terroir gives Cabernet Sauvignon an early and optimal ripeness, allowing it to express fully the finesse and silkiness of its tannins, the guarantee of the freshness and elegance characteristic of the great Margaux wines. At Château Durfort-Vivens, the constant search for a natural balance between the vine and its terroir is reflected in traditional cultivation practices. In 2012, 80% of the vineyard was farmed biodynamically and 20% under integrated production
An offer on Château Durfort Vivens 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, labels. 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.