What We Drank (April 19, 2010)
Here's what the NYCR editors are drinking now…
"Extended maceration gives
this wine a deep, rich garnet color and beautiful extraction. Aromas of
cocoa, exotic spice and wet topsoil reach right up out of the glass.
This red is full bodied and mouth-filling, with lush chocolate flavors.
Jim made only 130 cases, with long-term aging in mind."We're not quite at what I'd call "long term" yet, but I don't think this wine has much longer to go.
Not that it's dead yet either. My bottle was incredibly smooth — to the point of having nearly no structure left at all.
The chocolate and intense character has faded quite a bit, but the spice remains with a leafy-earthy component that I described as beet greens over the weekend stepping forward. That's akin to the "top soil" note from five years ago.
If I had to guess, I'd say this one isn't going to improve anymore in bottle. In fact, it's probably just a bit past peak. Not dead, but getting tired.
I left the bottle with my friends and apparently it fell off the table by a couple hours later. If you have any of this, drink up.
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Lenn:
I love the idea of revisiting wines you’ve reviewed. Too many do not realize that scores, ratings, tasting notes, etc. are a function of time, and really only 100% applicable to that particular bottle and date of tasting.
Tom: Absolutely. And this little exercise is also a reminder that no one really knows what a wine’s drinking window is or will be. Makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t bother with them anymore (not that I do that a lot).
That’s not entirely correct Lenn, I think. It isn’t hard to know a wine’s drinking window if you have experience with it, its history, and with examples of the wine at different ages. Certainly Mr. Rothschild knows the drinking window of a Rothschild since there are dozens of examples to learn from.
The problem here is that we have a wine without history, and all the “long term aging in mind” doesn’t make it last for the long term. Not without cryogenics anyway.
Aging is about balance and substance, but mostly about balance. All the best intentions in the world isn’t going to make a 2003 improve. It just wasn’t built for it.
And as we all know, improving, and aging are two totally different things.
Jim: A fair point. I guess over decades of tasting your estate’s wines, you can learn how they will TEND to evolve.