2010 JBV was on the menu tonight- maticulously cared for since release, and carefully prepped with a 3 hour decant. Corked. (Can we move to screw caps universally please!).
I digress. Plan B, my first time with Mercury Head. Given failure to launch tonight, this got a short decant. I didn’t anticipate it needing one in consideration of the approachability of all the other Orin Swift wines. I don’t know what Dave did here, but holly mouth sucking tannins batman! Shutdown hard.
So anyone know this wine, and/or how it performs in time? Is this typical across vintages? Any idea of fruit source for this? Prices to go above 100 next year and there is a lot of competition at that price. Not sure what to do with my remaining 5 bottles, let alone next year…
Never heard of them. Where is the vineyard? Is that actually a mercury head dime on the bottle?
This was the single best wine Orin Swift produced , two vintages that I tasted it. Yes it is a dime.
I opened an '01 two years ago. I thought it was very promising but still too young.
rumored that a big part of the juice comes from Lewelling.
Didn’t you smell it when you decanted it?
Sounds like this is one of those you open and decant, thinking that it’s closed. Come back 2hrs later and the TCA is there when it wasn’t detectable before. Happens.
I could see how this could be the standout in the Orin Swift stable, but definitely needs years to tame these tannins. I haven’t had a Lewelling, but yes, I can definitely see the resemblance to Hayfork all the way around.
That corked Saxum was a bummer- couldn’t smell it going into the decanter and I am hyper sensitive to TCA, I guess just not from a distance. Soon as my nose went in the glass though, it was there, ever so faintly, but I just have zero tolerance for it. In hindsight, every Saxum I’ve had has had an explosive, room filling perfume going into the decanter. This had nothing, implying all the fruit was pretty much scalped.
Thanks all for your thoughts- this is a wine I don’t think I’ve ever seen discussed here.
We opened a 2008 MH three or four years ago and it was ready to go with a short decant. We have one left that I will save for a bit to see what it does. I think it is a great wine, but for the cost there are others I would buy at this point in my collecting.
What vintage was the wine? (I thought the 2002 was gorgeous a couple of years ago.)
And what vintage was the dime?