When tasting wine, you're bound to have some severe let downs. You build yourself help for what should be a terrific experience, only to have the wine, the winery, the restaurant, or even your friends let you down. Last Monday at Thames River joins my ranks of big let downs.I met up with a bunch of friends to taste the $180 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23 Cabernet from 2000. By all means it should've been wonderful. Granted 2000 was not a killer year for Napa Cabs, it's still SLWC, and it's still the famed Cask 23. Amy and I arrived first and grabbed our sampling because they would only be dishing out one bottle, and we didn't want to be left high and dry if our friends arrived too late. We stood their sniffing our glasses in great anticipation. The nose was fabulous! Everything you could ever ask for in a powerhouse Cab. Cedar and Currant and Blackberries. Just glorious scents. Once Amanda and Kevin arrived and secured their glasses, we tasted. Blah! Just so flat and lifeless. No sense of structure or flavor. It was like being at the fair when you were six and having the bully pop your balloon. It tried to redeem itself with a relentless finish that wouldn't go away. It was that flavor of a winery's barrel room just seeping into your mouth. But the complete absences of a palate made this wine a dud in our books. Maybe I'd pay $30 for it on clearance, but surely not $180.
Another recent let down was my 2002 Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou that I lugged out to Martha's Vineyard. I was hoping this $80 investment would've aged into a First-Growth imitation. Instead, I was left with another $20-$30 tasting bottle that left me drinking it straight from the decanter till I felt I had my money's worth (see Facebook for photos). So, fill me in, what's been one of your memorable wine related let downs?
Till next time..."Broadway! I haven't been so happy since we crushed Poland!"--???
2 comments:
If you know us, you know that we have next to no interest in California wine. I very idea of a $180 bottle of California Cabernet flies in the face of reason. We opened the Cask 23 hoping that you, the public would draw the same conclusion about it that we had after drinking it periodically for four years. You may have noticed that we poured it on a Monday afternoon, a time we normally reserve for $15 wines. Dave, of Dave's Faves fame had to be convinced for days to participate in this little stunt, which was in response to some silly movie glorifying the 1976 judgment of Paris, or as I've come to call it, the beginning of the end. As for the Ducru, that wine is positively austere in it's youth. I've had the 2002 which at my drinking was hard, tannic, and reminiscent of licking stones. The 1982 and 1995 are both drinking beautifully indicating the wine requires at least a full decade to reveal itself. I would say the wine is not a First Growth imatation, but Second Growth Classified Bordeaux which most closely parallels the style, development and maturation profile of Chateau Latour.
Thanks for the input Jim. One of the reasons I've really come to love your place is that it doesn't focus on California wines. While I do have a weighted interest in them, I love exploring the rest of the world at Thames River. Thanks!
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