I’ve had an idea and am gauging the interest or lack thereof. Amongst the wines in your various collections, are there wines that you’re not convinced are alive anymore, but could be? I thought this could be a fun premise for a dinner or series of dinners called “Dead or Alive?”. The assumption would be that the wines are dead or unpleasant, so, naturally, “backup” (read: The real wines for the evening) are brought along, possibly to match the cuisine of the restaurant the dinner is happening at, or other vintages of said wine you brought that you have more faith in showing well. The fun is, of course, exploring the old wines, discussing the vintage of, the historical significance of, the acquisition story (how did that wine end up in your cellar?), etc. I’m in the NYC area and think this could be fun. What say you?
A follow up question to this to make the thread more fun is: Anyone have any stories of opening wine you thought surely was DOA that turned out to be drinking well? Or even stunning?
My tasting group occasionally has a “bring out your dead” tasting. Often we find a gem but most are on the downside of the hill. It can be entertaining.
I hosted a tasting of a dozen old, forgotten bottles from my cellar. All US. Starting with a 1980 Stonegate cabernet. I need to post the pics and the results but we were very surprised that most of the bottles were still drinking well.
On Thursday, the X-Pensive Winos had our December dinner. The first flight of '61 and '71 Barolo was as dead as Monty Python’s parrot. It wasn’t intentional, but predicted.
I’d be up for it. And I think fun is the right word. The expectations can’t be set high. Finding a couple of stellar performers in the mix would be a bonus.
Recently cracked a high shoulder 1970 Troplong Mondot with some hope but no real conviction. It was fantastic. Go figure. Other bottles from the same case have been duds. You never know!
Interesting to know. I have often written off purchases of mature wines from the same provenance when one bottle shows poorly and none of the other ones look any better (ullage, etc.). You’ve just given me hope.
Oh yes. Often the case for me, especially with older vintages. Only good bottles, not “good wine”. bought two bottles from the same provenance of 1996 White Cottage cabernet recently. One dud the other very good. Who knows why.
Something very recent indeed, opened by a friend at a big gathering a few days ago. He wasn’t sure about the state of his mag of 1988 Williams Selyem RRV Pinot, but it was in very good shape for sure----yes, the fruit was in the sunset phase, but the elegant structure and feel was still fully in play. A delight to consume.
Very fun idea! I rarely have the patience to test the theory though
This dinner idea is tons of fun. Our very own @Frank_Murray_III had done a few similar events — he’s called them “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. All wines are paper-bagged. Attendees are given a sheet of red dot stickers, and a sheet of green dot stickers. Everyone goes around and tastes for awhile, affixing a red dot to the particularly gross bags and a green dot to the particularly good ones. At a certain time, the wines are revealed. With enough wines in play, there are always some fun surprises in both directions!
