Community Tasting Note

• honest bob wrote: flawed

  May 20, 2020 - From 75cl. Premox. Exactly as recorded on 13.04.2018. That makes 3 premoxed bottles in a row out of 6 purchased, 3 remaining in the cellar. Going by other CT TNs for this wine its incidence of premox seems relatively low by the miserable standards of 2008 Chablis. What to do? Hope things look up? Or maybe just sell on my remaining bottles to unsuspecting purchasers? Would that be cynically dishonest (given my 100% failure rate so far), generous (given the statistical probability that my remaining bottles really ought to be OK) or therapeutic (given that the current auction price is – astonishingly – three times what I paid)? Any moral philosophers out there who can offer me guidance?

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3 Comments

• drwine2001 commented:

  5/20/20, 8:38 PM - Well, definitely choice C from the sound of it. My own recent experience and that of others appears to be at odds with yours, and such is the frustratingly unpredictable nature of oxidation issues. I am not a defender of Dauvissat's record from this period with regard to oxidation, but I would not say that the 2008 Séchet has called attention to itself as a particularly egregious offender.

• win_fried commented:

  5/21/20, 4:54 AM - To be honest, Bob. You would not want to sell your precious bottles to someone who opens them, finds them premoxed, and discovers your tasting complaints on cellartracker.
  
  Best of Luck wiith the other three bottles.

• honest bob commented:

  5/22/20, 1:39 AM - Thanks for your comments. Don't worry: there are personal reasons why I'm extremely unlikely to sell on my remaining bottles, not least the fact that I have had great luck purchasing mature wine on the grey market, hardly a dud from cellar clearences and even on ebay in the past. Wouldn't want to jinx that winning streak by being dishonest bob!
  
  Still, the ethics of selling premoxed product interest me. I see mature white Burgundy for sale on the lists of supposedly reputable merchants all the time, and can't remember ever seeing a warning attached. Is that ethically OK? One could argue that when I filled my car boot with 2008 Chablis at cellar doors back in the day the producers had no idea they were selling me defective products. Today, however, anyone selling mature white burgundy must know the high failure rate. Is it morally justifiable to assume that this is fully priced into current market values? Is it fair not to give full disclosure to a naive or simply uninformed purchaser?
  
  Incidentally: only once have I ever returned premoxed wine to its maker —several cases of fine 2001/2002 Riesling ruined by early-generation Nomacorc plastic closures. The sheer unpleasantness (=rudeness, friction, accusations of poor storage in my cellar etc.) of that encounter just wasn't worth the money I eventually recovered, and I certainly wouldn't dream of facing up to the wrath of M. Dauvissat, M. Fèvre or their colleagues south of Beaune. So even when I next go to that part of France on vacation that isn't an option for me.

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