Community Tasting Note

aidyl wrote:

Sunday, January 25, 2015 - An interesting experience with a bottle at the edge of its drinkability window. 85% Cab Franc, 15% Malbec. Popped the cork at the restaurant and had a small sample. Perfect cork, noticeable sediment and crystallization. A filter funnel is recommended. The first initial sample immediately presented a soft, but distinctive bouquet of ripe plum and flowers. The taste, however, was still fairly muted, so we decanted. After several minutes of air, it almost completely shut down, reduced to a merely "hot", astringent wine with just a bare hint of its potential.

After an hour in the decanter or in the glass, if you let the glass sit (no swirling!), the bouquet of juicy plum and violets returned, and carefully sipping the glass gave a nice lush black fruit attack, a subtle mid palate with hints of black currants, and a moderate finish with just a touch of chocolate mint. Remarkably, if you swirled the glass, the top layer that had gotten some air (and was just opening up) would get completely overwhelmed, and you ended up with a glass of overly "hot" alcohol fumes and a mere hint of fruit. We reserved and recorked half the bottle when it was apparent that we didn't have time over dinner to let it breathe adequately, so I will revise our score tomorrow or the next evening, with the current rating based mostly on its potential.

Final note from day 1: 90 minutes after opening, and 15 minutes after finishing our glasses and rebottling the decanter, the last dregs of the 2009 Halter Ranch Cab Franc in our two glasses had a wonderful bouquet of ripe black fruit, violets, and a slightly toasty, crème brûlée aspect...so we are really looking forward to trying this wine again on day 2.

Note from Day 2: Nope. I was wrong. It was all leather and vinegar on Day 2...barely drinkable. So it was at its "best" upon opening. Perhaps I should not have put it in the refrigerator after recorking the bottle, since the time necessary to warm it up might have impacted its drinkability, but I was very disappointed that it didn't improve at all on Day 2. Revised my score downward as a result. We have 1 other bottle, and I'll update my Tasting Notes with any salient details should it deviate from this disappointing encounter.

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