Community Tasting Note

RiedelBeagle wrote:

Monday, October 23, 2006 - In light of my experience with the last bottle of this wine, I poured this bottle right into glasses without decanting. It came out of the bottle a little befuddled, with a forceful nose of "Hermitage funk:" moss, wet leaves, and other artifacts of the forest floor. On the palate, it was similarly unidimensional at first. However, after just a few minutes, the wine found its balance, and was one again the gentle, complex, Burgundian beauty that I drank the last time. After about two hours, the wine once again seemed to start fading away, with the fruit disappearing first, then the pine, moss, and licorice, leaving only a nice gravely finish. As I reached the bottom of the bottle, it seemed to be entering yet another phase, this one once again dominated by that powerful Hermitage funk, though this time with some acidity and gravel left for balance. Was it struggling to reach a new, even more interesting stage of development? Or was it just about to degenerate into the foul, vinegary swill that was left at the bottom of my last bottle? I don't know. I'm not so good at gauging these things. Parker says to drink it from 2005-2030, and John Livingstone-Learmonth (author of the wonderful Wines of the Northern Rhone) says 2013-2017. Both of these writers have far more experience and knowledge than I. And other reviewers here seem to feel that this wine has a lot more life in it. Still, it's hard for me to believe that I should hold onto my remaining bottles for too much longer. Perhaps my batch experienced some suboptimal storage conditions at some point in its life?

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