Like everyone the boxes are rolling in…question to the group. What is the one “release” that you know you should wait to open but just can’t wait, throw caution to the wind and open immediately? For me it is these Rivers Marie Cabs? I just have to try one right out of the box! What about you?
I bought an extra 18 DI CO to try young. I’ll give it a few months before sampling. I literally put new release shipments deep into my offsite locker and forget I have them so they aren’t drunk young. If I do want to try one, I’ll buy an extra or in normal times head up to Napa for tastings.
Thanks. It is a personal preference of mine to let those tannins mellow and age before I open cabernet. We drink zinfandel 4+ years at home while the cab ages and every so often I do a run on older cab auctions so we have older cab to drink in the house. My first cab vintage was 12’, so those are getting super close to where I want them.
I have done 2 PNP this week, just out of the box. Robert Craig Howell Mountain Cuvee, 2018, their new lower priced cabernet. Probably young vines. Not a lot of finesse but a big bold mouthful of Cabernet. It was very good. The other was a 2017 Turnbull Reserve, opened so that I could watch their zoom on the new releases. This needs some time. Nice aromatics, good freshness. A blend from Weitz and Fortuna, as always, but I think they said more Weitz (Leopoldina in their world) than usual.
I just got another box of Vincent chardonnay, pinot, and gamay. I am jumping on one with dinner straight out of the box. I often have wondered if it pisses of a good winemaker if you open a bottle that is too young!
For me, it doesn’t have to be the absolute current release, but I’m keen to try producers I have little/no experience with. For example, MacDonald, I opened one because of several notes saying that it was ready and it totally wasn’t. I wish I had a 15 year old MacDonald. Conversely, I’ve no need to try a current release of Heitz Martha’s vineyard because I know what those are all about and know they need time.
I’ve been struggling on this with a lot of my shipments this year. So far I’ve Pobega’d bedrock evanghelo, dirty and rowdy ‘Wear It!’ And big table farm house blend this year.