I had to snort out a laugh at a review of the 2007 Chateau de Segries Lirac Cuvee Reservee in the latest WA. Reprinted from the importer’s website “A brilliant red wine which requires another 6-12 months of bottle age… (yada, yada)… this offering should be forgotten for a year or so, and consumed over the following decade.” - Wine Advocate (June 09), 90+ pts.
I have a story to tell of a 12 pack of 1998 that I bought 9 years ago based on a similar write-up. Figuring that a good Southern Rhone from a great vintage should easily go 10 years, and since I like a bit of age on my wines, I tasted one bottle after purchase (it performed as expected compared to the review), and I squirrelled away the other 11 bottles for 7 years. A couple of years ago I opened bottle #2. Something bad had happened inside the bottle and the wine was off tasting and fizzy. #3 same, #4 better, #5 same, #6 fizzy but better after decanting the bottle back and forth to get rid of the gas, and letting it sit for a day.
I wrote to the importer Kysela, and asked if they had any problems with this wine. They said no. I asked if they would like to test the wine, and they agreed, and asked me to send 2 bottles (shouldn’t 1 bottle have been enough?) to them for testing. So I boxed up two bottles, and sent them at my expense. A couple of weeks later, I received an email from Kysela that there was nothing wrong with the wines, but that a wine like this should be consumed in a year or two, and is not meant to be cellared for 8-10 years. There was no offer of any compensation for the case of crappy bottles I bought, or even to replace the 2 bottles I sent for testing. True, I never asked for a replacement, but I would have thought that a family importer like Kysela would have volunteered, and I thought that it was too gauche to ask.
Since then, bottles #8-#12 provided pretty much the same drinking experiences as bottle #2-#6, which was variably poor.
Needless to say, I will never buy another bottles of Segries. I will probably never again buy another bottle of wine imported by Kysela. And considering what has happened to the Segries, and another highly recommended '98 that has turned out to be a great disappointment (Marcoux), it all adds a bit more doubt about the fallibility of tasting notes from the critic who was my go-to guy for Rhone wines for years.
Anyways, based on my experience, if you are still planning to save your 2007 Segries Lirac for “the following decade”, don’t say that you haven’t been warned.