Spent most of yesterday rearranging and cataloguing my wine fridges and noticed that two of five 97 LEAS appear to be advanced much further than the others. Having had some problems with this vintage before, what would be the prudent thing to do;
a. return the bottles to one of my current suppliers
b. open them and if oxidised (as I presume, based on previous examples)
return to one of the suppliers or
c. contact the winery and request their instruction. They might be interested in receiving unopened bottles for evaluation.
I would appreciate Forumites advice on what they would do. The original supplier was taken over twice and is now a Coles "subsidiary" who didn't want to get involved last time I had a similar problem. My local DM outlet
came to the party last time.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Just an aside, why do we have to have so many different bottle sizes?? I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to "queeze" as many bottles as I could into my two fridges (Liebherr 196 Bot.) and readjusting shelves, etc. - nothing worked and a number of shelves now have the strangest collection in them.
Chardy - discolouration
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Daryl Douglas
- Posts: 1361
- Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2003 7:23 pm
- Location: Nth Qld
Yeah, Burgundy style bottles can be a problem in my little wine fridges.
I'd recommend contacting the winery. The last TCA affected wine I had was a Tahbilk bought from a large retailer (which I told Tahbilk in my email) and it was replaced within a week with no questions, no requirement to send the bottle to the winery - but I did mention my club membership, quoted the membership number.
Cheers and good luck
daz
I'd recommend contacting the winery. The last TCA affected wine I had was a Tahbilk bought from a large retailer (which I told Tahbilk in my email) and it was replaced within a week with no questions, no requirement to send the bottle to the winery - but I did mention my club membership, quoted the membership number.
Cheers and good luck
daz
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Daniel Jess
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- Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:45 pm
- Location: Brisbane, Qld, Australia
- Contact:
That's tricky unless you know what you're looking for with certain faults. If you were able to give more direct information on what's actually wrong from appearance we could probably advise more easily.
However, best thing to do is either a) take it to someone who could identify certain faults without opening it or b) call the winemaker.
Hardest thing to do - finding faults without opening - however if it's been a recurring problem, you should definitely speak wtih the winemaker.
However, best thing to do is either a) take it to someone who could identify certain faults without opening it or b) call the winemaker.
Hardest thing to do - finding faults without opening - however if it's been a recurring problem, you should definitely speak wtih the winemaker.
If they have been stored the same , and 3 look to have good colour, then it's most likely just the vagaries of cork...you would not notice it if the wine was red. In an ideal word you would go back to the cork manufacturer for recompense, in this one though I would just accept it as part of the risk of cellaring cork sealed wine.
GW
GW
Gary/Daniel
The five bottles are the last of 2 dozen, stored exactly the same in professional storage. The last one tried was undrinkable and returned through DM. But there was no evidence of TCA which I would have detected given my sensitivity to TCA. The colour was very dark and similar to the two I perceive to be affected in a similar way. Hence I presume they are "stuffed" as well; particularly as the other three seem to have retained a colour consitant with one of that age.
I will send an email to the winery and ask them for their direction and let you know what transpires. In late 2003 they advised me that, quoting verbatim - "Unfortunately we have found some random oxidisation in the 97 A/Series Chardonnay as it has aged and in fact we have since purchased a new bottling line which has greater control over oxygen input at bottling". In previous dealings with the winery I was treated expediently and in an examplary manner.
I drank a number of subsequent vintage since, none displaying premature aging anywhere near those two bottles.
I'm missing the 05's to preserve the vertical but that will be rectified shortly.
Thanks for your input. While I don't post in general, I have been a regular visitor for many years and find this site more amenable (and less pretentious (?)) than the other one.
The five bottles are the last of 2 dozen, stored exactly the same in professional storage. The last one tried was undrinkable and returned through DM. But there was no evidence of TCA which I would have detected given my sensitivity to TCA. The colour was very dark and similar to the two I perceive to be affected in a similar way. Hence I presume they are "stuffed" as well; particularly as the other three seem to have retained a colour consitant with one of that age.
I will send an email to the winery and ask them for their direction and let you know what transpires. In late 2003 they advised me that, quoting verbatim - "Unfortunately we have found some random oxidisation in the 97 A/Series Chardonnay as it has aged and in fact we have since purchased a new bottling line which has greater control over oxygen input at bottling". In previous dealings with the winery I was treated expediently and in an examplary manner.
I drank a number of subsequent vintage since, none displaying premature aging anywhere near those two bottles.
I'm missing the 05's to preserve the vertical but that will be rectified shortly.
Thanks for your input. While I don't post in general, I have been a regular visitor for many years and find this site more amenable (and less pretentious (?)) than the other one.
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Daniel Jess
- Posts: 214
- Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:45 pm
- Location: Brisbane, Qld, Australia
- Contact:
No worries. I have had Sancerre style sauvignons that have shown similarly and they were under cork and only 5-7 years aged. I put those down to severe oxidisation because of bad (thinly constituted) corks.
Agree with Gary. Would be keen to know if there was a significant ullage? (The wine apparently magically disappearing?). Could support that the fault is in the cork and not so much the corking process (which would mean that changing the bottling line at the winery may not do that much pop if they continued to use low quality bad corks).
By the by, I'm not saying LEstate necessarily use bad corks, for the record!
Agree with Gary. Would be keen to know if there was a significant ullage? (The wine apparently magically disappearing?). Could support that the fault is in the cork and not so much the corking process (which would mean that changing the bottling line at the winery may not do that much pop if they continued to use low quality bad corks).
By the by, I'm not saying LEstate necessarily use bad corks, for the record!
Daniel Jess wrote:No worries. I have had Sancerre style sauvignons that have shown similarly and they were under cork and only 5-7 years aged. I put those down to severe oxidisation because of bad (thinly constituted) corks.
Agree with Gary. Would be keen to know if there was a significant ullage? (The wine apparently magically disappearing?). Could support that the fault is in the cork and not so much the corking process (which would mean that changing the bottling line at the winery may not do that much pop if they continued to use low quality bad corks).
By the by, I'm not saying LEstate necessarily use bad corks, for the record!
Yes, simply changing the bottling pressure may make the difference regardless of what cork is used but as far as cork goes...who knows?
cheers
Carl
Bartenders are supposed to have people skills. Or was it people are supposed to have bartending skills?
Update on LE service - it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge their examplary service. I did as suggested and returned one bottle to the winery (tried the other one but it went down the gurgler); they acknowledged it was oxidisation and replaced them with two of the 2005 which arrived within a few days, enlarging my six-pack. Following is an extract from their email response: -
I have spoken to our winemaker and unfortunately there is nothing more I can add than as we discussed - the browning was a case of oxidisation caused from the cork closure. Despite our best efforts when sourcing corks and the batch testing of our corks to reduce the risk of cork taint in our wines, it is not possible to eradicate 100% the occurence of cork damage affecting a small amount of bottles and hence our move to screwcap closures now that these are an option. US Wine Spectator Magazine have done a feature on our move to screwcaps in the July 2008 issue which you may find interesting.
Next I have to tackle VC about a bottle of 1988 Pommery Louise (about $260 RRP), a 'bonus share' redemption purchase.
I have spoken to our winemaker and unfortunately there is nothing more I can add than as we discussed - the browning was a case of oxidisation caused from the cork closure. Despite our best efforts when sourcing corks and the batch testing of our corks to reduce the risk of cork taint in our wines, it is not possible to eradicate 100% the occurence of cork damage affecting a small amount of bottles and hence our move to screwcap closures now that these are an option. US Wine Spectator Magazine have done a feature on our move to screwcaps in the July 2008 issue which you may find interesting.
Next I have to tackle VC about a bottle of 1988 Pommery Louise (about $260 RRP), a 'bonus share' redemption purchase.