“If you are going to drink Bordeaux and they are ageable Bordeaux you should drink them right away. Right after you purchase them they’ll still be fresh and they’ll still be jostled around they’ve been fully aerated through the moving process. They’re the most awake at that point There after they kind of settle in and in the next six months they kind of are a little bit unsettled.” - Trophy Wine Hunter
Earlier he mentions that drinking them early gives you a baseline to compare the wine. I agree with this, but the next statement I’ve never heard before. I presume he’s referring to bottle shock, but from my limited understanding on this topic the goal is to AVOID bottle shock. Is this a separate issue of travel shock and sediment being stirred up while being shipped? I’ve never heard about the shipping process aerating the wine.
It is always different for different wines. And based on stacks of comments here, most people do not seem to enjoy young Bordeaux. That being said, the wine pictured in the video, Croix Mouton, is one of the best value wines in Bordeaux. Though it is a wine to drink in its youth, as it is not a long-term ager.
Even when I intended to lay them down for many years, I think I missed out on an educational opportunity in not tasting BDX when first released when I purchased multiple bottles. Early in your wine tasting experience you have the chance to compare your perception to how the critics describe them at the early stages, and compare that to when they are mature. Thus you can refine or calibrate futures tasting notes to have better predictive value what you want to have in the future after years of aging. This assumes you will be buying and laying down wines and relying to some degree on critic notes.
I’d add there is a veritable ocean of good value/affordable BDX that can and should be drunk young. The French drink a ton of these. Traveling in France was an eye opener in how much cheap BDX that I had never heard of was on the menu at bistros and how good the quality was.
I’m not sure about elsewhere but K&L gets a bunch of good value Bdx that drinks well young. I’ve taken to trying just about anything they list from Pessac as they tend to be quite good with some Graves character. I think the warm vintages have been very good to the lesser wines.
I seem to recall Tom Hill did some type of experiment on the subject of shipping, settling, and/or aeration that involved an electric blender. Can’t recall the details or the conclusions. Tom??
I remember Robert Parker making a similar comment (back in the days of the eRobertParker board). He specifically said that while shipping and “travel shock” seem to have a negative impact on aged wines and on lighter wines (Pinot in particular), he felt that “big wines” such as Bordeaux, Cab-Blends, etc. often benefit from shipping, at least in the day or so after arrival, and that the shipping somehow improved or “opened up” the wine for a very short window of time. He recommended (and claimed that it was standard practice for him), having a bottle upon its arrival, and then assuming that by a day or so later, the wine would likely be shut down due to some combination of travel shock and the cold cellar temperature. If I recall correctly, the conversation began when he announced that he always opened a single bottle of Quilceda Creek the day it arrived after shipping, to get a good read on the wine, and that after that short window, he would intend to cellar it for a much longer term.
Back when they actually sold & shipped wine I bought mags of these from PC for quite a few vintages, dirt cheap. They change the graphics/color on the label every year (or used to).
Interesting, maybe instead of opening up the wine for RP is more “integrated” in the fact that certain aromas and flavors are muted or amplified. I mean if that theory holds true couldn’t we just shake the **** out of every bottle before opening?
lol… I thought you were going to say you take your Bordeaux bottles on long walks on beaches and give them a proper date before opening them up. I suppose in a way you are.
On this tangent, Monday night I finished a bottle of 2014 Chateau Brown (Pessac), that was very good. Glad to have a few more - they will get drunk in the next couple of years!
I’m getting quite the good laugh right now. Perhaps I should leave the innuendos at the door for the moment, but ahh it’s too funny.
Question for all you bdx lovers have you noticed the blends not be consistent with their appellations in the more recent years? A customer mentioned to me that producers are mixing up their blends and left vs. right bank isn’t going to be so clearly defined by the Cab/Merlot blend ratios. I find this plausible with global warming, but haven’t seen anyone else mention this.
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