Taste it Again / Lost & Found

On occasion, I’ll take a wine I like and put it away in a “special box” for a few years to see how it will age … below you will read happened to those wines. On the other hand, there are wines that get “lost” in my wine cellar with nary a review ever written - some have turned into golden Treasures, others supreme Trash and then there are those that fall somewhere in-between (Tolerable). We’ll look at those here too. (New wines are being added all the time so keep coming back):

Taste it Again : Henry of Pelham 2012 Cabernet-Merlot Estate

23 Mar 2020

Henry of Pelham 2012 CM Estate

 

October 27, 2019 ...  So I decided to experiment with this wine. I am getting a lot of questions about decanting lately either by the glass or a full bottle so I decided to split this bottle into two. Half I decanted the other half I left in bottle. I also started with just one glass, or a splash in the glass, to see how a  single-pour decanter would also work with this wine and give me a baseline.

Bottle: there were smoky, peppery, dark berry fruit (cassis / blackberry) cinnamon and spice with a touch of cedar; which I thought might blow off in a couple of hours, but then I made the decision to rush it a bit.

Decanted: fruit character is gone, coffee grounds and cedar dominate - I found this very unappealing.

After 2 hours:  poured from bottle there is still life with dark berry / spiced blueberry, mocha, coffee but that cedary finish remains prominent - the decanted version seems lifeless and failing.

Advice ... don't decant / by the glass or the full bottle, you're wasting a good wine ... allow bottle to open up on its own naturally and you'll enjoy the experience over the course of the night.

See the original review here

 

Taste it Again : Chateau des Charmes 2007 Equuleus

12 Jan 2020

 

C des C 2007 EquuleusOctober 26, 2019 ... I don't usually look back at a review until after I have written the new one, keeps me from being enthused or jaded (as the case may be), but this Equuleus caused me a little bit of trouble so I wanted to see where it was all those years ago.  Back in 2011 I had to taste this wine a number of times before it finally "spoke to me" and then I rated it pretty high thinking it was finally on its way to mellow and settle down - I'm not quite sure it's ever going to get there now:  lots of rough and rugged tannins from the get-go here ... there is some dark fruit skins that seem to cause a gritty texture to the wine, think tannic-blueberries but there is also a ton of wood notes. Will this resolve? At an hour or more opened it's still having problems shaking those rugged tannins. Continuing this experiment further into the night I continued to sniff and sip ... I finally pulled the plug at the 3.5 hours mark ... tannins still had not mellowed but the dark / blue fruit was showing much better - I have one bottle left, for shits and giggles let's see what happens in a few more years.

See original review here

 

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