Bottle Shock on Pinot

[WineThinker]

Hi All,

I'm interested in the topic of Bottle Shock and how it effects Pinot. Through a friend in the industry, I got last years vintage of Pinot at 3, 6 & 11 weeks after bottling. After 3 weeks, it was terrible. I was thinking of using the remaining bottle as toilet cleaner...it would've stripped anything. 6 weeks, was starting to gain some fruit characteristics, but still not great. 11 weeks was when it started to come good and they released it on week 12 (I actually has some say in it, how freakish is that...can't believe they trust my judgement).

The wierd thing is, I tried this years vintage after 2 weeks in the bottle and could've quite easily have had the whole bottle with him (if I didn't have to drive).

What's the go there? I'm interested to know the "science" behind it if anybody knows.....

Matt

[rens]

I found this on the net. Not overly scientific but it's a start. Also mentions Pinot as being a bit of a sensative variety in the 2nd last paragraph.
Hope this helps
http://www.northtexaswinemakers.org/Bottle_Shock.pdf