I am taking it on public transportation and am concerned about both potential fragility and sediment. Before traveling, I am inclined to gently decant and return to bottle right away, again very gently. Thoughts or suggestions? TIA.
Sorta depends upon what you mean by “public transportation”. Cross country on SouthWest w/ it lying in the baggage hold??
Or cross-town on a bus or subway where you could hold it in your lap upright and keep the sediment settled?
Either way, decanting ahead of time, even as gently as possible, is liable to do more damage to it from the oxidation,
which is unavoidable.
Tom
Tom, it’s just a bit of walking and two trains.
I am concerned that the sediment will stir even if I keep it upright.
Sounds like you believe oxidation should be the greater concern?
So I think your vote is just be careful with it, but don’t decant. Let me know if that is wrong.
And thanks!
Brady,
Let the sediment settle for several days and then just hold it carefully upright as you walk & train-ride.
There shouldn’t be much sediment stirred up if you reasonably careful.
I think the oxidation of such an old wine would be the greater risk.
The wine should be still hanging in there, I would guess. A legend in its own time.
Tom
had this twice in the past 3 yrs, both pop and pour. First one was great immediately at opening, and continued strong through one hour until finished. Second btl fell off after 30 minutes, and not as great as the first bottle, but still VG+. Not sure if a long slow-o would help. In any case, this wine requires your full attention, so might not be suitable for a casual dinner in an uncontrolled setting with distractions, imo.
I’ve had so many old bottles spoiled by people who brought them to dinner or tastings on the subway and served them cloudy. Zin sediment usually isn’t that nasty. On the other hand, in London others are unlikely to have had a really old zin, so it would be pity to spoil it.
Can you drop it off ahead and decant it the day of?
I don’t think it mattered too much in the end. The wine was a bit roasted, maybe heat damaged. It was drinkable maybe, but not terribly interesting.
That said, despite being careful, the fine sediment was evident in my glass. It wasn’t nearly as off-putting as nebb sediment, but greater clarity would have been nice. I suspect the wine would have survived decanting.
The '83 Latour a Pomerol served with it was terrific.
Thanks all for your advice.
Thanks for the report.
Love your avatar photo. Where in London is that?
We should have decanted it. It was totally different when I had the second half of the bottle an hour later. The roasted smell had vanished, and it was weirdly Northern Rhone-esque, with lots of peppercorn and a meaty character and very dark fruit, though still showing signature California sweetness. Never judge a wine on pop and pour…
Hmmmm…never?? Not sure I’d go along w/ an absolute like that, Dan.
I’ve had my fair share of old/decrepit wines over the yrs. When you have a wine in a highly reductive state, they change
fairly rapidly once they’re opened. But predicting which ones will actually improve w/ air and which ones will break apart
is very/very unpredictable.
In an ideal world, w/ an old wine like this, the safest tactic is to P&P and then follow it over the next hour or two.
Alas, sometimes we cannot live in an ideal world.
I do a fair amount of old/decrepit wines w/ my tasting group. The standard procedure is to P&P. But then I will
usually go back and taste the remaining wines after the group has left. I would have to say that it’s relatively rare
that I see a dramatic improvement in an old wine w/ air after an hour or two. We will see an improvement, fairly
frequently, in the wine in the glass over a few minutes period, though.
Given a wine as old as a '73 Geezer, I’d still advise a P&P procedure. Unless I’d had one recently that made the improvement
that you described, Dan. And then, given an old wine, there are no guarantees.
Tom
I didn’t say “decant everything.” I said “Never judge a wine on pop and pour,” and I feel quite comfortable stating that as an absolute rule. Sometimes wines improve with air, like this one. Sometimes they stay the same, and sometimes they get worse. But you’ll never know which one it will turn out to be, and run the risk of missing out on potential improvement, if you guzzle the whole bottle or walk away/move onto the next too quickly. Obviously the absolute best treatment would be to PnP everything and then take a sip from your glass every 10 minutes for 6 hours to plot its entire evolution, even if each sip is worst than the last. But that would take all the fun out of it and turn it into a job.
John, I took the photo in Muswell Hill in north London towards the end of a rainy walk. The rainbow was a nice surprise. Glad you like it.
Dan, thanks for sharing the wines. I am delighted the Geyserville transformed.
Tom, again, thanks for your help.