So cellartracker gives me pause to open a magnum for dinner party. Anyone had this out of magnum yet?
Thanks,
C
Might go with 2010 Peter Michael les pivot and 2010 Bryant DB4
Haven’t had a magnum but did open a 2014 750 a few weeks ago and it was ready for business👍
Not sure about the large format, but I ran through most of the lineup with Roy awhile back and the 14 (like most Napa Cabs I’ve had recently) was on point.
I’ve never had a Roy Piper wine, but is it at all possible that a 2014 Roy Piper Cabernet in Magnum might not be ready to consume until circa the 2064 to 2089 timeframe?
BTW, that’s a serious question.
Again, I’ve never had a Roy Piper wine, but at age Almost-Five, the typical Cal Cab in Magnum will taste a whole lot more like a barrel sample than like a fine wine.
But maybe RP designs his wines to be drunk as barrel samples?
I dunno.
Roy Piper might be able to answer that better than I or if he does not see this I am sure Will could help out???
2064 to 2089 seems a bit of a stretch though???
50-75 years seems a bit long. Probably accurate that this wine would be young, especially from magnum. But 5 years for Napa isn’t unheard of in terms of being drinkable
Haven’t had it but I would go for the older wine.
Hey! The 14 is a bit more structured than some of my wines, but I don’t think it would be any more so in a mag. I think mags last longer because the volume to oxygen ingress over time, is less. As super small amounts of air get into a 750ml, it has a larger effect than the same cork size allowing in the same air volume but with twice the wine. I might try to slow ox the wine for 3-4 hours before, and maybe even 6-8. The 14 has a long way to go, though, til reaching early maturity.
Nathan,
The only statement you made that makes any sense is
“I dunno”
Serious is Roy Piper makes great wines!
Roy, I recall we had a cork person here a couple years ago who told us that corks don’t breathe. Is that what you are suggesting?
Corks do breathe. I can see it myself. The cork starts to harden and shrink ever so slightly over time. This allows a tiny bit of air in over many years. Eventually the corks get brittle and break when you try to remove them, when they are very old. Given a vacuum is formed in the wine when bottled, I can’t see how wines would “oxidize” over time without… oxygen. Since no oxygen is present in the wine at bottling, the only way in I can see over time is through the cork. I could be wrong, but would be really surprised.
Magnums have the same bore hole for the cork as 750ml do. They use the same cork. So the same amount of oxygen gets in the bottle in each case, but in the magnum you have twice the wine volume to absorb it, thus the reduced oxidation.
That demands a similarly serious answer, which is obviously…
Have you ever considered a 96 hour decant?