2003 Chateau La Mondotte Saint Emilion

Deep red. Deep aromas of currant, minerals, leather, smoked meat and sexy oak. Dense, sweet and creamy, with a deep sappy core of red and black berries and rare vibrancy for a 2003. Wonderfully rich, lively fruit coats the entire palate on the back and the chewy tannins are remarkably suave for the vintage. This virtually tastes like it's from another vintage-a testament to its "cold" clay and limestone soil. As I noted last year, proprietor von Neipperg told me that only the property's tiny percentage of young vines lost their leaves in the extreme heat and drought of the summer of 2003.