Community Tasting Note

• Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 points

  June 26, 2021 - Under the ridiculously archaic cork; why not make the bottles from hand blown glass, or hand made clay amphoras as well? In the 21st century using a seal as bedeviled with problems as cork is simply idiotic and/or mulish. Much better options are available. It seems quite clear looking at the notes on this wine that the significant variation is down not just to the idiosyncracies of the various contributors but to the poor quality of cork as a closure. Here endeth today's rant.
  
  This note made about 12 hours after opening and decanting. I use Reidel Bordeaux with Neb, having found it works better than other shapes.
  
  The wine is of medium depth, garnet and a fair amount of brick, a little on the turbid side and with some fading to the rim as one tilts the glass. As Nebs often head to brick hues fairly early I am usually cautious about assuming too much from the brick in the colour. The slight murkiness is another matter.
  
  The nose is dominated by smoky tar and some anise/liquorice; secondary characters consistent with the colour. Then comes some attractive dark cherry.
  
  The palate is potent, long and intense. The palate has the same elements as per the nose but the fruit is more present and there is even a hint of prune and plum. It is a complex wine with robust tannins that are now coming into better balance with the fruit. Earlier, the tannins were verging on Stalinist. I have read one writer assert that 2009, although very warm, often resulted in somewhat under-ripe tannins, as the vines shut down too often for the tannins to ripen fully, creating a disjunct with the very ripe fruit. I think there might be something in that with this wine, but how this impacts your enjoyment of the wine will depend on your tannin tolerance. I have to say that I love this and the tannins are not an impediment; as with many great things, one sometimes has to look around the odd flaw, or slight imperfection. The sum here is really very good indeed. The wine is also now freshening up, compared to earlier, when it seemed slightly tired.
  
  I am tempted to say that this wine probably has a long life ahead of it, but the issue is bottle variation because of the crappy seal. A bottle I had a year ago was far more fresh and even after a day decanted was clearly still too young, whilst this bottle is in a really nice spot now. I could easily have scored this at 94 - it is on the cusp.

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5 Comments

• markcic commented:

  6/26/21, 5:25 AM - very nice write up - thank you

• drwine2001 commented:

  9/4/21, 11:33 AM - Helpful note in terms of the current state of this wine. However, why spend so much time raging against a closure that apparently had no effect on the high quality of this bottle?

• Rote Kappelle commented:

  9/5/21, 2:12 AM - Drwine, re the closure and why my rage against the (leaky) machine, the answer lies in 3 things;
  
  1. Read the second last sentence of my para 1 and first of para 6. The answer is there.
  
  2. I may be an angry ant.
  
  3. I am a Cabernet lover and we are, by nature, cantankerous and prone to nastiness, much like the tannins of that grape and sour, like the acid of that grape in many vintages.

• drwine2001 commented:

  9/5/21, 10:28 AM - Ha, I understand your pique since this is a frustration that we all experience. Now, your notion of personality traits correlating with varietal grape characteristics is a novel idea that warrants further pondering...or perhaps not :) Cheers!

• DrWine74 commented:

  10/29/21, 8:18 PM - WTF ! My cork was perfect!
  Cut down on the Adderall or drink more wine!
  Final thought: You : “My Kingdom for a corkscrew “ !

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