Community Tasting Note

• scyrene wrote: 88 points

  February 1, 2018 - Mid yellow-orange colour. Quite toasty, lactic, saline nose, not really my thing. But the taste isn't bad, it's quite balanced and on the sweeter end of brut (that may be due to softening acidity with bottle age). Not as compelling as the blanc de blancs, nor in this example even the straight Cuvée des Moines. But it's not bad, and all three are creditable, well presented, and at least as good as most big house NVs. Disgorged March 2012. [Composite cork + cage; 12.5% abv; Oddbins, -25% @£30.75].

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3 Comments

• nzinkgraf commented:

  2/1/18, 5:57 PM - Please note that a wine’s acidity doesn’t change much with age. Our perception of it may due to other factors as wine ages.
  
  From Decanter -
  
  Jim Boyce, Wolverhampton, asks: Can you settle an argument about acidity and wine age? A friend says that acidity will remain constant, but I say that it will soften. Who is right?
  
  Stephen Skelton MW, for Decanter, replies: In technical terms, the level of acidity in bottled wine remains almost constant with age. But that’s not to say that the perception of acidity on your palate does not change.
  
  Esters can alter our perception of sharpness – they are compounds formed during ageing, due to the reaction between alcohol and acid in the wine. Tannins and phenolics are also responsible for making a wine taste harsh, and these will drop out as sediment as a wine ages and help to soften a wine’s taste.
  
  Or Wikipedia -
  During the aging process, the perception of a wine's acidity may change even though the total measurable amount of acidity is more or less constant throughout a wine's life. This is due to the esterification of the acids, combining with alcohols in complex array to form esters. In addition to making a wine taste less acidic, these esters introduce a range of possible aromas.
  
  Thanks for the note!

• scyrene commented:

  2/1/18, 6:07 PM - That is a fair comment but I would counter by saying that wine tasting language is not scientific. We talk about scientifically-measurable things like tannin, acid, and sugar, but we are not talking strictly about the measurable values of those things. Rather, we speak of the sensation of them. So you may well be right about acid not diminishing with age. But it can be the case that the sensation of acidity diminishes, and it is not incorrect to talk about acid diminishing if understood in that way, especially if using subjective terms like 'softening'.

• nzinkgraf commented:

  2/2/18, 4:33 AM - For sure. Sounds like we’re on the same page with this one. All the best!

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