On opening, the wine comes out of the bottle a worrisome medium gold color. It’s tastes like a somewhat tired, restrained but weighty white burg. No hint of Chablis in it, and the thoughts of “damn, a bad bottle” start to appear. In two hours, it becomes a lively Chablis in mid-life, and remarkably, the color has lightened to a dramatically different light straw.
The first point, which has been made many times, is that I would guess that some folks might have concluded oxidation and poured it down the drain (but note there were no oxidized notes on the nose or the palate). The next point is familiar to experienced white burg drinkers, that many of these wines need time and air to show their stuff. I personally am almost more likely to decant a white burg than a red for this reason.
The last point is the color change with air. I’ve seen this numerous times with white burgs of moderate age, but have not seen it written about much at all. It can be pretty dramatic and generally accompanies a marked awakening of the wine. Not sure that I’ve seen it in wines before 1995, although my experience in that age range is somewhat small. Has anyone else noted this phenomenon?
The fact that it starts out gold in color is concerning at this age, but the fact that two hours later it’s the color of a 5 year old chablis sort of wipes this concern out, I think. Not sure what this wine will be like in 5-10 years. Also as Nick points out, this is all colored by the fact that it’s a 2005.
FWIW, I have opened mulitiple Dauvissat bottles that I thought initially might be oxidized and weren’t. And, since I try never to open a Dauvissat bottle under 10 years old (from the vintage), I’ve had some reason to suspect it. In at least half the times, the wine was fine/great…the other half…shot from premox.
The lesson I’ve learned is simple: give Dauvissat bottles plenty of open aeration (ie in a decanter) in every case. Almost without exception, frustratingly, they are better the next day. And, I’ve convinced several skeptics of this.
They can mimic oxidation (or prem-ox)…and open up fine, too…though I’ve never noticed a color change…Usually in those cases, the color is fine…which makes the suspected oxidation all the more puzzling…until it turns out fine.
Dauvissat wines need lots of age to show their stuff, IMO. And…even at 10-15 years old…need lots of aeration thereafter. I’m not sure why…excactly…but…though WB, in general, IMO, needs more aeration than RB…Dauvissat is in a class of its own in that regard.
At first, this phenomenon really puzzled me…but then I realized that regardless of whether it starts good or suspect…they all need that aeration. I"m happy to oblige…too…
Like with a Trimbach or Boxler riesling, these Dauvissats never seem over the hill…when they aren’t actually premoxed.
It’s not in any way. It’s the total opposite. It’s Redox. (sorry). These are reduced wines that are gasping for air.
Premox always gets worse with air. these wines are colored and a little odd, but don’t have any oxidized wine notes (sherry, waxy stuff). It actually takes a little concentration and attention to detail when you open one of these wines. When people see the color, they assume premox and shut off their critical faculties.
I was just replying to stuart where he said 50% were premox and 50% were fine and great, but in the 50% that were fine and great they might mimic oxidation. Just having some fun with him is all.
and…i bet you’ve thrown away some good bottles that “mimicked oxidation”…when you’re drinking as “well” as you seem to…why wait…pop and pour and if not great…go on to the next trophy asap. Why suffer any delayed gratification.
That’s cute Stuart. Did Patrice Rion tell you that story when you visited in 1989?
That being said, contrary to your flawed statement. I opened a 98 carillon bbm two months ago that was my latest instance of “premox”. I corked it back up and drank it the next day and it was showing much better.
Glad to hear, Charlie…patience can be a virtue…even if it’s only one day.
I’m surprised you know about Patrice Rion…he doesn’t make trophy wines…at least the usual ones. It was actually 1992 that he told me the story about …wait…what “story”? There are so many…to tell…and “we” didn’t have boards like this in the “old daze” so we could report/record our everything we do…