Community Tasting Note

• Indran Rajendra Likes this wine:

  April 14, 2014 - Semi opaque ruby bodied wine. Blackcurrant blackberry black olives intermingle with dark cherries,plum,raspberry tomato vine, eucalyptus, dried herbs, lemon grass, violets, truffles and pencil shavings, nutmeg and cinnamon. Elegant long palate with soft mouth feel. Peaks at 75 minutes in the decanter stored at 16 degrees C and starts to fade at 105 minutes. Drunk from Riedel bordeaux glasses.Score 96

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5 Comments

• chatters commented:

  5/15/14, 9:39 PM - Thanks for your tasting note. When you say fade what do you mean? Is it just that the wine becomes more muted or that it starts to fall apart? cheers, chatters....

• Julian B commented:

  5/16/14, 10:43 PM - I had two bottles at Christmas and found them both very closed, and considerably more approachable the following day. On that experience I reckon I won't open my other bottle until 2016, so I was surprised that you thought it started to fade after such a short time being open.

• Indran Rajendra commented:

  5/18/14, 9:15 PM - Thanks for the comments and taking an interest. Most wines have a window of time when they are at their best after they are opened. The subjective assessment that the wine is at its best is mainly based on the complexity of flavours and aroma,the balance of the wine, the intensity and the integration of all the elements. Once the wine moves out of this window in time the above elements start deteriorating usually gradually. I notice that the complexity is one of the first to go. You may no longer be able to smell or taste that mint or truffle note that was present before. The wine becomes more muted in intensity and starts losing balance becoming overly sweet sour or bitter. Oxidised characters start creeping in and after a few hours I usually find it undrinkable. I guess you could say the wine has fallen apart. I have predominantly tasted Australian cabernet based wines mostly sourced from the winery and cellared well over the last few years. I tend to decanter the bottle then sample a little of the wine immediately and then at 15 minute intervals. I have noticed that for these Australian wines the window when they are at their best usually occurs between 45 minutes and 120 minutes after opening at a serving temperature of 16 degrees. Some wines have a very short window of around 15 minutes while others can be as long 45 minutes. For this wine, the Woodlands Margaret 2007, the window appears to be around 30 minutes sometimes between 60 minutes to 90 minutes and sometimes 75 minutes to 105 minutes. I do understand that individual tastes vary and so it does not surprise me that some drinkers will enjoy their wine better the next day but this certainly does not apply to me.

• Julian B commented:

  5/18/14, 9:19 PM - Great explanation, might have a closer look next time. Cheers

• chatters commented:

  5/19/14, 4:58 AM - thanks for your explanation and, of course, taking the time to explain, greatly appreciated, cheers, chatters

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