8/13/23, 6:43 PM - Mark, there is clearly only one experience for anyone with this wine. Every bottle is the exact same and every consumer's pallet is the same. However you may have paired this wine must also be the same for you to have a valid or valuable opinion worth sharing. If you write anything different then you, and only you, are the problem. Absent improvement on your part I think we may need to suspend your Tasting Note privileges.
6/10/23, 6:14 AM - Ha, no! All wine tasting is personal. I provide my treatment of wines in hopes of optimizing its performance. But at the end of the day it is up to each individual to choose how they want to experience any wine. The difference in treatment may explain why some people experience certain flavors and notes in one wine but not in another. That is all. I hope you had a great bottle. Cheers!
7/15/22, 7:25 PM - These wines are too big (in my opinion) to pop-n-pour before the 10 year mark. I have drank a number of Kutch McDougall Ranch wines and they need a lot of air (and age) to show their wares. Here is my recent note on the 2012 which took 3 hours post-decant to really express itself. You'll see in my note much of the same muted expression early on that you experienced, Give them a few more years and plenty of air and you should have some gems on your hand. Cheers. https://www.cellartracker.com/note.asp?iWine=1566865&iNote=9588038&searchId=A0B6CE5A%23selected%253DW2061932_45_K6f93867327274961a250acfa17d199db
4/13/22, 1:06 PM - "Reopened when got to dinner for ~2hrs. Was this just again pulling the cork, into a decanter again, or poured into glasses that sat for a couple hours?"This was solely removing the cork from the bottle at dinner and letting the bottle sit there until poured. It never went back into a decanter after the initial double-decant.
1/28/22, 5:43 PM - This was easily the hardest wine to give a # rating because it was all over the place, ranging from "flawed" to a pretty decent wine. If I had to give it a # rating on the 100-point scale it probably ended as a 92 point wine after it evolved beyond its initial really difficult phase. It was radically two different wines between the first tastes and its final tastes with a lot of effort in-between to coax it away from its possibly flawed state. Hope that helps.
11/13/21, 8:37 AM - which wine are you drinking? the 8 hour decants were for the Barolos with 30 years of age or older.
11/13/21, 12:41 PM - Yes that wine will need every bit of air. Eight hours was good but ten was better. Good luck and please report how it turns out. Enjoy!
9/24/21, 5:27 PM - Do you remember whether you decanted or slo-ox'd this? and if so, how long?
9/21/21, 4:05 PM - No decant. Simply popped the cork and let it rest (Slo-ox") for 90 minutes before sampling.
8/14/21, 8:12 PM - oldwines wrote: "You are so right with regard to older wines still needing to breathe, especially great Nebbiolo, Bordeaux, old-school Cali Cab and GC Burgundy…When you get it right, the fruit explodes often after a re-emergence following a multi hour “shut-down” during which many people will assume the wine is dead after the initial burst of flavor in the first half hour. It’s such a shame when I read a note on a wine I have had with a proper decant and they say it was way past prime or worse it was PnP… I know immediately they missed what was special about the wine. You had some great wines in the tasting! Thanks for the excellent notes… Cheers!"
8/8/21, 6:49 PM - Thanks for the tip. That's a great price!
6/26/21, 9:39 AM - Reading your note I was scratching wondering my head where my note on this wine was ... I had a substantially similar experience 2 weeks ago although I did decant 2-3 hours. This wine won't be ready for some time (5 years?) in my opinion.
6/26/21, 11:36 AM - Just my personal guesses but I would venture your experiences are a combination of personal preferences and an example of the various phases great wines can go through. Mike's top end wines haven't been around long enough to know if 5 - 10 - 20 years - or longer? is the optimal drinking window. My guesses on the needed aging and possible improvement (according to my preferences) are a mix of experienced drinking and blind hope. At this stage no one is wrong with when they prefer to drink the wines but only according to their palate is a wine more or less ready to be consumed. At least that's how I feel.
6/12/21, 3:11 PM - The treatment of a wine prior to serving can make or break its performance. It kills me that a greater number of seasoned wine drinkers and note takers don't share that info. I try to share that on most any wine I have notes for. Thanks for your feedback.
4/11/21, 1:10 PM - It was a genuine "head turner" of a wine for more than a few people on the night. Just fabulous.
4/11/21, 2:33 PM - Lots of similarities for myself. Was introduced to the 2011 Vin de Constance at The Test Kitchen in Cape Town in October 2019. An absolutely perfect closer as you would expect from a meal at The Test Kitchen. From this visit on I have been hooked on the best of South African wines and there are so many to discover at incredible prices.
4/11/21, 3:22 PM - Great selections. Wines that I have had and agree were: Anthony Hamilton Russell, Chris Altheit, Mullineux, Anthonij Rupert and Rust en Vrede. I'll be certain to try the others. Names I enjoy and purchase: Kanonkop Paul Sauer/Cab/Pinotage, Morgenster Estate Red Blend, Glenelley Lady May, de Toren Z and Fusion V, Delaire Graff Botmanskop, Tokara Chardonnay, Meerlust Rubicon, and Le Riche Reserve. Just an abundance of undiscovered gems from this region. I intended to pour the Alheit Cartology to open the evening last night but the Kutch Chard was specifically requested.
4/11/21, 4:06 PM - I am familiar with who she is from a surface level knowledge of her biography. Such an interesting Lady. Would have been a treat to meet her.
4/12/21, 6:32 PM - Roxette, thank you for sharing your experiences and wine recommendations. I love the imagery of the Vins lined up late in the evening with some desserts.
4/11/21, 12:39 PM - It's drinking brilliantly right now. It was a specific request from a participant I shared the wine with previously. The "six hour later" check-in was also not accidental. I'm more and more convinced the Kutch whites will age for years, much like the Kutch Pinots. I hope to keep a few back but it's hard when they are so good now. Cheers!
2/11/21, 4:16 PM - Nice note and consistent with my experiences with this venture. Was fortunate enough to pick up a few of these last year but am down to 1.5 bottles now. Thankfully the new release should keep me from opening that last bottle. Would like to hold it back for some aging. I enjoyed the first bottle so much I happily poured it for any friends that came by. Unfortunately I started running low far quicker than I anticipated!
2/11/21, 10:35 AM - It's interesting you have already sampled 4 of the Reserve. I was hoping, within the very real body variation of WA Private Labels, that my lone experience was going to be on the low-end of my expected future experiences. Across my tastings of various WA Private most have been extremely good wines and superb values with the occasional clunker (from the same bottling) mixed in. From your tastings with the Reserve it may mean the baseline experience will be comparatively mediocre -- still a good wine, but not exceptional -- with an occasional outlier mixed in. Only time will tell but thanks for sharing your results.
2/8/21, 8:50 AM - I've been fortunate enough to taste a variety of the Wine Access private labels. While I am pleased with quality and value, the bottle variation is a very real phenomenon across the labels. That factor alone will likely prevent me from investing much more into these offerings.
2/5/21, 2:37 PM - Did you decant? If so, how long?
1/23/21, 6:47 PM - Did you decant? If so, for how long?
3/14/20, 2:17 PM - Thanks Frank. I'll be sure to open a few in the coming weeks and share the experiences. Cheers!
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