I would generally agree, but as you can see in situations like this, wine will oftentimes surprise us if we keep an open mind…
Cheers
Thanks, Larry. Tonight I have designs on a 1996 Cantemerle (mag), which is more typically my sweet spot, with rib eyes and friends. This is one where I hope NOT to be surprised.
I used to buy and enjoy their wines but as their prices jumped I stopped buying them in favor of better QPR. Mostly bought the Giuseppe & Luisa zin in '02 - '07. Mostly drank them young.
I got to try the 2013 Lolita Ranch pinot at an in-store tasting on the weekend. It was odd – extremely pale in color (like a red Chassagne-Montrachet or a Loire pinot) and had very little concentration, yet it was marked at 15.4% and had some candied/cough drop cherry flavor. I had to wonder if it was watered back a lot. I can’t imagine how you’d get that alcohol level with that faint color and lack of concentration. It was drinkable, but the alcohol was pretty conspicuous and it didn’t seem to have the stuffing to age. At $80, it’s certainly a pass for me.
I once tasted a wonderful Pinot from barrel and ordered a case to be shipped after it was bottled. What showed up was lighter and had less concentration to the point that it didn’t even seem like the same wine. Tasted like a hollow shell of what I sampled from barrel. Learned later that the wine had been sterile filtered.
Interesting.
Certainly, some serious Burgundies can seem pale and not very concentrated when young, then flesh out. But the color doesn’t get darker. And this wine is already more than five years old.
The wine that I had never recovered at least not before we consumed the case which was over many years. As best that I can recall it didn’t change much at all from the first bottle to the last.
I am not suggesting that this is what explains the bottle you had. Just addressing that there are other ways to strip color and body.