This is full and powerful, with loads of fruit and a tropical undertone of berries and mango. Loads of tannins in this big wine, but still very fresh. This needs more time than the 2000. Give it five years. Pull the cork in 2015.James Suckling | 93 JSAromas of blackberry, black olives and licorice. Medium- to full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a fruity finish. Refined and nicely done. Best after 2010. 21,665 cases made.Wine Spectator | 91 WSGiscours should be taken seriously by consumers as the quality has been ratcheted up over the last 7-8 years. The deep ruby/purple-hued 2003 offers complex, evolved aromatics of wood smoke, chocolate, charcoal, black cherry jam, and cassis. Lush, medium to full-bodied, and broad, with low acidity, copious glycerin, and a layered, persistent finish (it lasts for 40+ seconds), this beauty can be drunk now or cellared for 15 years.Robert Parker | 90 RPThe wine has held up well and is clearly one of the better examples from this hot, dry vintage. There’s some brick at the rim and the nose is a little flat with just a hint of dark pastille fruit and licorice . There’s a sweetness to the palate and the tannins are a little chunky and drying but there’s still obvious fruit and that innate freshness to balance the obvious warmth of the year. Drinking Window 2021 - 2025.Decanter | 90 DECIn normal vintages it’s velvety and rich, but Giscours seems to have gone over the top in 2003. The fruit is certainly there, generally fresh, but there is an underlying sense of over-ripeness, which needs to be better integrated: Hopefully this will happen as time goes on. For the moment, it’s a question mark.Wine Enthusiast | 90 WE
