if i learned one thing from listening to Jeffrey Davies...

WINE TALK
1

it is decant, decant, decant! 2003 Fidelitas Optu only reinforced this lesson last evening.

if ever a bottle proved the above it was this one. originally closed, unapproachable, too dense & hot i thought this a $40 experiment in opacity and found myself wishing i had opened a local bottle. given a few hours in the decanter though this meritage smoothed out into a cerebral melange of soy sauce and herb garden with little discernible fruit in your nose but lovely lighter cassis and plum notes with a sweetness that replaced the earlier EtOH domination.

68% Cab Sav, 28% Merlot, 4% Cab Franc from The Columbia Valley and a bottle i think most would readily enjoy.

i have rarely had a wine do this 180* pivot in such a short time. looking fwd to Washington in June and thx to my friend DaveB for this recommendation.

2

Glenn,
Emil Peynaud wrote “The Taste of Wine,” and on page 240 of that text he writes, " . . . only bottles which have a deoposit need to be decanted." (That’s his bold print, not mine.)
He goes on to comment that that is the first, last and only rule of decanting, etc.
'Funny how times change (that book was orginally published in 1983).
Best, Jim

3

anecdotally i must disagree with Emil. this bottle had ZERO sediment and changed radically in the decanter.