Tasted at the Denver offline on 1/18/03.

13.5% alcohol, this was the fifth of nine wines tasted. Decanted for approximately two hours at the time of tasting.

Relatively deep red color to the rim. On the nose, this wine was controversial. Some tasters noted fresh cut wood and cedar, with a barnyard undertone. Others called it tree sap, burnt rubber and even manure, and described it as the dominant smell.

On the palate, a medium bodied wine with cherry and raspberry, if you could get past the smell. Some tasters could not.

This wine was rated seventh by the group. Seventh on my card. Mrs. mbansek could not get past the smell, and did not even taste it, rating it zero. Since only the wines in the top three for each person received any points, the zero did not affect the group rating.

This was my first tasting of a New Zealand pinot. I would find it interesting to try another bottle of this, and follow it from opening over a period of time to try to find the best drinking window. Were we too early? Too late? Unfortunately, I would not be allowed to have it in the house if I told mrs. mbansek it was this wine. Maybe I can find some of the other selections from Felton Road instead.

The link to the summary of the night ishere.

Mike

mbansek - I've got one bottle left that we'll open one day soon. Jeremy helped me identify this as a good wine to bring and also suggested that it needed little to no decanting. I'm hoping that it had been sitting in the decanter too long by the time we got to it.

I look forward to it, Matt!

Mike

As I wrote to Matt the 98 vintage was amongst Feltons first vintages and although a good wine was probably reaching it's drinking window. I recommended ten to twenty minutes decanting. What you discovered I think showed to keep air time to a minimum with NZ pinot from Otago. If younger than five years, ten to twenty minutes with five minutes for each year younger. Over five years, splash decant and drink/taste.

Jeremy:

I agree with you as far as this wine. I talked with Matt about it afterwards, he left explicit instructions that it be opened at the last minute, and they were not followed.

Rest assured none of us have made a final judgment on this wine. Matt has another bottle, and we are trying to plan a dinner around it. Next time, we will follow your advice closely.

I talked with a couple other attendees, and they too believed this one has too much air time.

We will post the results of our next taste of this wine in the future.

Mike