For anyone who’s curious, I will not be taking pictures and/or consuming the wine in my bathroom. However, I will be splitting a bottle with a good friend on his 26th birthday later this month à la Walt and Skyler in Breaking Bad.
I’m definitely looking forward to trying a bottle. It’s a wine I don’t find around my neck of the woods too often. I’ll be sure to let you know how it shows.
1988 Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill: Wow, this is a big boy. Lots of coffee, nutmeg, orange rind, and spice wafting out of the glass here. On the palate, there is an adherent red fruit-spice to the Pinot. The wine is both rich and dense while still maintaining an acidic lift. This reminds me of an '89 Grande Année I had recently, although the Churchill appears to bring more precision and depth to the table. 93 pts.
You do when it’s seen heat. I can see why it smells like coffee, the smell I get borders closely to the smell of a coffee filter when I have heat damaged champagne.
The colour and description looks a bit as if the bottle(s) have been stored too warm … a well stored 1988 PR WChurchill should look brighter and be fresher …
Properly stored 40+ yo DP has absolutely has notes of coffee; and along with chocolate, is a signature. Nothing to do with heat damage.
That said, if the color of the Pol Roger SWC is representative in that picture, then I don’t think it was properly stored.