Going to open a couple bottles of Quilceda tonight with some friends at one of our favorite restaurants. 2005 & 2007
Dinner is in 2 hours. Should I pull the corks now and let them get some air or pop and pour?
Yes, pull the corks now!!!
For me, those are big jammy juicy wines and it kind of doesn’t matter. I don’t think you go wrong either way.
Pulled the corks two hours in advance and they were pretty closed off to start dinner. After an hour or so in, they started singing. The 2005 outshined its little brother but both great showings. A real treat as these were the first 2 Quilcedas that I have had the pleasure of drinking.
The others though will sleep for several more years as these are still very young IMO.
I had the 2005 without a decant maybe a year ago and it was overly tannic and oaky, hard to enjoy (but not jammy or sweet at all in my opinion, contrary to what many people say).
I brought it spur of the moment to a restaurant, which was a really bad plan in retrospect. I probably just didn’t make it to the point you got to where the wine started opening up. I’ll wait longer on my others, though, since it clearly wasn’t approaching any sort of decline.
I would have been very dissapointed if I did a pop and pour. It began opening after 3 hours, but the potential at 5+ would have been great. Although, had I let it decant that long I would have missed the evolution and that is half the fun. I would stash the 05’ for a few more years though as it has a long long life ahead of it.