Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve 2003

ABOUT THE WINE
Georges de Latour is the classic, original Reserve California wine. Aged 20 months in oak, it reflects many decades' experience with our historic vineyards in Napa. Hand-harvested fruit, whole berries, careful but vigorous extraction during fermentation and gentle handling throughout provide a wine for the ages.

This wine is nearly opaque black-ruby color with purple highlights. The aromas show strength of black fruits, licorice, black pepper and minerals, with Rutherford accents of black olive, peppercorn and dark cherry. Full-bodied in texture, this wine has pronounced, dense and concentrated flavors of black currant, anise, sweet vanilla and distinctive minerality. The rich tannins are balanced by medium acidity providing freshness. Deeply full of character, this vintage will require 7 to 9 years aging to reach maturity, yet tastes fine now; it is an excellent example of the vintage.

ABOUT THE VINEYARDS
Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignon showcases our best fruit, primarily derived from the original BV vineyards in Rutherford, now enhanced by a high percentage of unique clones with stronger flavors, like Clone 6, Clone 4 and Clone 337. These vineyards and a few others in Oakville and St. Helena are moderate- to low-yielding sites with gravelly-loam soils and ideal drainage for Cabernet Sauvignon.

ABOUT THE VINTAGE
The 2003 vintage was a season of contrasts—a cool wet spring, then warm late May, cool June-July and wet August, followed by heat waves in September-October leading to a late harvest finale in November! The even pace of harvest allowed us to pick fruit at optimum maturity. The quality of the late-picked grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon was excellent. The extended summer-like weather in fall was ultimately the key factor in producing high quality fruit this vintage.