Im curious did the people who have experienced oxidation open any from their stash on release? Has the wine changed or are we talking handling issues, which Brad alludes to. As one who hasnt popped one Im curious…
I will have to open a couple bottles of this to check on it. I still don’t think there is an oxidation issue with the wine itself and would bet more on handling/transportation, but the only way to tell is to check. I bought from two sources in the US - Wine Exchange and Crush. I sampled this at the winery and also bought from the winery. Additionally, I sampled this from the importer. I have seen no issues. The bottles I bought from Wine Exchange (2 bottles) were consumed long ago. I sampled from the importer over two years ago. In my cellar, I have bottles from Crush and the winery. I will open one of each and see how they show. Right now I have a cold so I’m going to wait for it to clear before sampling, but I will pop them in the coming days.
For anyone who senses any pattern of oxidation to this wine, I would ask where you bought your bottles and what the importer/distributor chain might be.
Mine came from Beltramos - Garber and Co. importer
Charlie’s came from Crush -At this point, I don’t know that importer.
Man you guys are killing me ![[shock.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0b1dcf699ec319f43254f92e3f145786dcd93904.gif "shock"){kind=small}
I have a number of bottles & Mags…
From Crush & Rare Wine
I haven’t had any yet… I was keeping them cellered
but now will have to Open one(some)?
Cheers
Rip
Rip,
Before you do that, check who the importer are on those and let us know. THAT may be the issue, if there’s more than one importer. Still waiting for Charlie to check his bottles’ importer.
I just discovered this thread and am surprised by the oxidative feedback as I`ve had 7=8 bottles of this bubbly and all were good. As Brad states, I have to think this is more of a handling/ storage issue.
I got my bottle (that I reported on above) from Rare Wine Co…a few days before the event where it was consumed.
In the end, Beltramo’s took back my remaining bottles with my saved receipt. Matt, the manager, tasted what I had opened the night before, and realized, that while the wine was not over-the-hill, it WAS NOT what sound bottles are like. Thanks Matt! Belts Rocks!
So, I have two bottles open - one from the winery circa 2010 and one from Crush circa 2011. The Crush bottle appears to be a direct import/gray market or at least not originally intended for the US as it has the French tax stamp on it.
Both bottles show well and as expected. Lively acidity and fruit lead the way. The wine has relaxed a bit since it was first released with some of the overt leesy/biscuity and creamy notes mellowing and the tart red fruit taking more of a lead. A touch of mellow apple is apparent and a lovely minerality shows up with time.
There is absolutely no sign of early aging or oxidation in either of these bottles. The baby fat that made this appealing to many on release has melted away and it is more elegant and finesse filled now, but it is also built to last quite a while and I expect more permanent creamy notes to appear again over time.
I’ve had the bottles open for a little over an 1.5 hours now and they continue to improve. Personally, I will be saving most of my bottles for the future, but others may disagree. In particular, those who like freshness and the sexy, sultry, creamy fruit of youth will prefer this now rather than later (just let it breathe and warm up + don’t serve it in a narrow glass; this really rocks in a Zalto).
I have no worries about this wine. I’ve had or sampled from somewhere around 16-20 bottles without a single bad one (and that is starting to approach the point where I would expect a bad one; I have about a 6% bad Champagne bottle rate with current/recent releases). I know it must suck to those who have had bad bottles, but I would encourage returning them and asking for a refund. I strongly feel they were probably damaged somewhere in the supply chain or are just plain bad luck.
Also, I have no bone in this dicussion/fight as I would be the first to admit and raise my hand if the bottles were bad. I was burned by 1982-1983-1985-1988 Salon and yelled to any who would listen about the problems these wines had. I also investigated and had my suspicions confirmed by the winery - there were problems with pre-1990 Salon. I would note the same here if I thought any issues were related to the wine and not the supply chain.
Good post Brad and some useful information. To be sure I have had bad bottles, but I am not upset with anyone or organization. I just got a bad batch, probably mishandled somewhere. I have probably bought 400-500 bottles of wine including some Champagne from Crush since and have no problems whatsoever. They have handled this minor situation like any good business would, in a very satisfactory manner, at least by my standards. I think it is important to note the bad bottles like you said though.