Taste the Sun of 2003

"The 2003 vintage in Germany defies the current conventional wisdom about German wine and could go down in the vintage charts as one of the great, if atypical, vintages of the last 45 years. There was an overabundance of fine, sunny weather that continued nearly uninterrupted throughout the growing season, giving us more hours of sunshine than Germany has probably ever seen before. Bud break came very early, followed by a nearly perfect flowering, which developed quite quickly and uniformly throughout all our vineyards. The early-starting growing season and exceptionally hot summer produced ripeness levels that were above average with lower acidity levels. The wines from Pfalz show beautiful fruit and structure. Without question, 2003 was an unusual year in Germany and throughout Europe, that ultimately, if unconventionally, produced some glorious wines."

-Ernst Loosen