A very good vintage for Alsace with very ripe wines, some good Vendange Tardives, but very little in the way of Selection de Grains Noble.

The weather was very warm throughout Alsace in 2003 causing the vintage to start early, but not as early as in some other French regions. There were some problems caused by the hot conditions, young vines particularly struggled, but more mature vines with roots down to lower water sources did not struggle at all and made superb wines.

The conditions were very good for all noble varieties and Pinot Noir was capable of producing some lovely, deep-coloured wines.

There was some concern about low acidity levels, but the best producers decided not to add acidity, some extracting more ripe tannins from the skins of the grapes to compensate.

The conditions were perfect for late harvest (Vendange Tardives), but there will be very few Selection de Grains Noble wines as there was little noble rot because of the conditions.