Trab
Grape Destemmer
Posts:57
 | | 03/30/2004 4:51 PM |
| Hello,
This is my first post to the forum. I've been lurking for a while and have enjoyed the free flow of information back and forth on the boards.
I'm pretty new to wine appreciation and am still just starting the process of building up my collection. Most of my wines are of the 2000 vintage or later, and I'm trying to let the decent bottles sit for a few years and drinking the cheaper stuff in the meantime. So, I'm pretty much in a constant battle with my impatient side.
I have a question that hopefully someone can help me with. The wife and I had a few friends over for New Year's Eve, and since we all like wine, I went to the local bottle shop to purchase a good bottle of wine that would be drinkable right now. The salesperson directed me towards a bottle of Robert Mondavi 'Los Carneros' Merlot, 1998 vintage. It was marked down to $40.00 from the previous ~$60 range. It looked like a good deal, and since I thought Mondavi was a respectable name, I bought it. That night I opened the bottle and decanted it for about 1/2 hour. When I poured 4 glasses of the wine, the aroma and taste right after pouring it was quite nice. However, after about 15 minutes, the aroma was gone, and the taste of the wine had gone horribly flat, for lack of a better term. We ended up pouring about half the wine out because it was simply not enjoyable to drink.
Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper. My question is, did I manage to open up the bottle during a 'dumb phase' while the wine was transitioning from youth to maturity, or did I just get a bad bottle, or did something else happen? Maybe the decanting wasn't a good idea? Since the wine was marked down, I'm wondering if the wine shop got some bad comments from customers and tried to move the wine out as fast as possible, or if it was just bad luck on my part.
Any comments the gurus here can provide will be most welcome.
Thanks in advance! | | | |
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Eric White
San Ramon, CA
Advanced Sommelier
Posts:9124
| | 03/30/2004 4:56 PM |
| Trab, welcome to the forum.
Sadly, that retailer took advantage of you and steered you to a wine from a poor vintage that they were obviously trying to get rid of. $60 for that wine is absurd, and even $40 is overpriced - it should have been priced to move at below $20 imo.
As for the wine fading quickly, in this case I believe it was simply a function of the wine fading early - the 98s are not wines to cellar for long, I suspect this one is simply dying. | | | |
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Budman
Master of Wine
Posts:11833
| | 03/30/2004 5:03 PM |
| Welcome Trab. Sorry about the bad experience. I'm sure most of us have been in you shoes more than once!  | | | |
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love_cab_chard
Master of Wine
Posts:12349
| | 03/30/2004 5:34 PM |
| | Welcome & sorry to hear. I think that Eric_W is correct. | | | |
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Trab
Grape Destemmer
Posts:57
| | 03/30/2004 5:46 PM |
| Hi Eric,
Thanks for your reply (and Budman too!). I am taking some comfort in knowing that I was taken advantage of by an unknowing or shady salesperson versus having done something to destroy the bottle on my own. Your comments about 1998 as a vintage to not keep has me worried, though. I have a bottle of Swanson 98 Merlot in the basement as well. Should I be looking to uncork that soon as well? | | | |
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Eric White
San Ramon, CA
Advanced Sommelier
Posts:9124
| | 03/30/2004 5:48 PM |
| | Trab, regarding the Swanson - yes, drink it sooner than later. | | | |
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wineismylife
Arlington, TX
Master of Wine
Posts:12003
| | 03/30/2004 5:56 PM |
| Trab, welcome to VC.
Yes, drink the 98 Swanson. It was a respectable Merlot given the vintage but is not an ager. I'd recommend simply opening the bottle and drinking immediately without any decanting. I already drank the few I had. | |
Joe
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Wine is like potato chips around me...if it's open, it's gone. | |
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Trab
Grape Destemmer
Posts:57
| | 03/30/2004 6:07 PM |
| Thanks WIML,
I'll heed the advice and bring it to the family Easter gathering. That should give it a proper sending off.
Is the same recommendation out there for the 2000 California wines as well? I have a decent supply of 2000 Cab and Zin that I'd prefer not to waste. I just returned from a trip to Napa and Sonoma, so I now have plenty of wine in transit that will help build my cellar up, so if the 2000's are another short-lived vinatge, I'll start rotating them into the 'drink-soon' case.
Thanks again to everyone who's replied. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 03/30/2004 6:34 PM |
| | Welcome, Trab. Stick around here and read the tasting notes. That will probably be a big help to you in getting good wines to drink. We review wines of all price ranges here. Well, maybe not quite all, but $8 or $9 and up. | | | |
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wineismylife
Arlington, TX
Master of Wine
Posts:12003
| | 03/30/2004 7:15 PM |
| | Trab, 2000 is different IMO. Some of the 2000s will drink better a few years from now (i.e. Jones), some are drinking incredibly good right now (i.e. Bressler) and others I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for (i.e. Whitehall Lane). I'd read through the tasting notes section for any wines you already have. Most posters try to target a drinking window. Also posting TN Requests in this forum will hopefully draw some responses. Then don't forget to read Wine Spectaor, Wine Advocate, Oeno-file, etc... on an on going basis. | |
Joe
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Wine is like potato chips around me...if it's open, it's gone. | |
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Trab
Grape Destemmer
Posts:57
| | 03/30/2004 7:45 PM |
| Thanks,
RIght now I am looking to build up a supply of decent wines in the $10-$20 range that are 'everyday' kind of wines. Now that's I've been to Napa and Sonoma, I'm starting to develop an appreciation for the more expensive wines in the $40+ range. While I was out there I bought 4 or 5 cases of wine, so I'm waiting for a few shipping boxes to show up at work here.
I am going through and reading the TN's as often as I can and am getting some good tips from them. My next step is to try and get the rest of my family off of the White Zin and jug wines. I'll tempt them with some finer stuff and see what they think... | | | |
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ormbee
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2397
| | 03/30/2004 10:22 PM |
| Welcome trab, stay, post often and readup. I sure have learned a lot here, and the education continues.
Stillwater is a great town. I used to live on north side of Minneapolis, and I always loved the drive along the St. Croix valley. | | | |
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Pool Boy
Laurl, MD (DC suburb)
Master of Wine
Posts:13660
| | 03/30/2004 10:28 PM |
| Welcome trab. I hope you have better luck converting your friends/family to try other wines. So far I've had little luck. But it it sure is fun to keep trying.  | |
www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com | |
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Jhawkwino
Grape Sorter
Posts:264
| | 03/30/2004 11:04 PM |
| Welcome trab. This is a bit off topic, but I think the best piece of advice I've picked up on this board (and I've pick up a lot of great advice here), is to find a retailer you can trust and let him/her get to know you. I'm also relatively new to the wonderful world of wine, and I have started building relationships with a couple of local retailers. They have introduced me to wines I likely would not have selected on my own. It is still a little hit and miss, but overall I think I do much better with their help than I would do on my own. So, I suggest trying to find a retailer who seems to know his stuff and is interested in talking with you and learning your tastes. Then let him help guide you. That, and stick around here... there is plenty to learn.
Just my unsolicited two cents. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 03/30/2004 11:16 PM |
| welcome to the family trab. stick around awhile and you are sure to learn a lot. a few tips i can give you:
1. like said above, find a retailer you can trust. just like a plumber or electrician, ask around here for places people rec. in your area.
2. if you are looking for quality juice in the $10-$20 range forget california. start looking towards spain, australia and washington. columbia crest makes some good wine for the coin.
3. drink up and try new things (unlike me  )
4. make sure while you are here, to make yourself opinionated, it makes for more fun 
cheers
-ant | | | |
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Budman
Master of Wine
Posts:11833
| | 03/30/2004 11:51 PM |
| | What AI said... and get a better avatar than a horse pooping! | | | |
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ChangeMe
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2042
| | 03/31/2004 12:14 AM |
| Budman,
You don't like Don Qui-scat-e?
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15708
| | 03/31/2004 12:57 AM |
| Trab,
You mentioned Merlot and Zin. The Merlot should drink well for anywhere from two to ten years down the road depending on the quality of it. The Zin, however, is a different story. Most Zinfandels are made to drink young. For optimum enjoyment I would recommend drinking Zins in their first or second year at the most. | | | |
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Trab
Grape Destemmer
Posts:57
| | 03/31/2004 3:11 PM |
| Quote:
The Zin, however, is a different story. Most Zinfandels are made to drink young. For optimum enjoyment I would recommend drinking Zins in their first or second year at the most.
Hmm... I have a bottle or two of the 2000 Ravenswood Lodi "Old Vines" Zin that I've been holding on to hoping that the tannins would subside. Is that not perhaps the best idea, or is Ravenswood an exception? Their zins are tasty, but very tannic (I think that's what I'm tasting, at least). It's a very different style from other zins I've had recently. While I was in Sonoma Co. I had a bottle of Porter-Bass Zinfandel that was very nice. Much more subdued tannins, more fruit flavors, and it didn't taste nearly as 'hot' as many other zins I've had in the last year or so, even though it had a fairly high %ABV as I recall.
For the Zin aficionados out there, do the higher-end zins exhibit more of the latter qualities? | | | |
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NorCalVinoLover
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2200
| | 03/31/2004 3:50 PM |
| Welcome to the board Trab,
As far as Zins go, they can really be all over the board. There are so many differnet ways of producing this varietal that it's pretty much up to you to find the style that you like. I personally enjoy the big old vine Zins. Chewy, Coffee, leather, tobacco are usually the discriptors that describe my favorite style of Zins.
We recently did a Zin tasting with a few young, 2001-2002, and a couple of older, 1987-1997, Zins that were okay were'nt the nights favorites. The 1987 Grigich Hills was just about gone, not much fruit left but still drank fairly well for the first hour. Now the 1997 Renwood was drinking very well but up against the old vines it didn't stand a chance.
Talk about high alcohol levels, this past weekend we had 2000 Martinelli EVO and a 1999 Jackass Hill that were ~16.5% but we not tasting hot whatsoever. Both of these were incredible Zins for me, just my style
Oops, was this thread drift? sorry about that.
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