I find a lot of spanish and south american wines are heavy handed with the oak treatment. Especially the Riserva’s, the can be some real oak monsters. The ones i remember most recently were an argentinean malbec from Gouguenheim that was ultra woody, but dry, not much vanilla. Like if granny’s walk-in coat closet was lined in sandalwood and you stuck your head in there and took a big whopping whiff. On the other hand, an aged Tempranillo from Alfa Spiga was pretty much sweet oak syrup. Like if there was a bottle of oak barrel extract you could buy in the baking spice aisle of the supermarket for making holiday cookies, this would be that.
Or if you’ve ever had the unique experience of sampling Chene, an oak-centric fragrance from the french parfumeur Serge Lutens, it’s pretty much the embodiment of the thick, sometimes cloyingly sweet, other times aridly dry woody musk of the over-extracted oak flavor and scent profile of many of these wines.
And high alcohol levels can also extract more oak elements, according to Mel Knox. That squares with my experience that you tend to get more wood spice notes (e.g., cinnamon) in big wines.
And, of course, Rioja traditionally has been aged in American oak, with its coconut elements. That’s quite different from French oak, like that on the SQN Leitmotif I posted on the other day. That smelled like a lumberyard. I assume that the SQN barrels had a relatively light toast/char.
2006 Château Larcis Ducasse (note from April 2012)
“Just a whole lot of oak, vanilla and warm berries on the nose. The palate isn’t much more interesting with heavy brown sugar, blueberries, vanilla and cream. Another wine fit for a beaver.”
1995 Monbousquet. Jay Miller described this wine to me as the most spoofed wine he had ever tasted. But that was some years ago so maybe he’s tasted some wine that has overtaken it. Having stopped buying the wine after this one, I haven’t. I last tasted this maybe 5 years ago before I sold off my remaining bottles. Maybe oak will go away after years of aging, but that’s not what this wine indicates.
Funny you say that. When I think of those wines I definitely think oak, sure. But I also think getting beat in the face with cassis/black fruit. I think El Nido might be the most “everything” wine I’ve ever had. It’s like a full out assault on the tongue.
So aside from the money, why would a well known critic score a really oaked wine so well? Do some seasoned tasters actually enjoy the oak bomb? I get how and why casual drinkers love oak, it’s silky, balanced (from a one dimensional sense) and fruity but I personally am highly distracted from being able to enjoy the wine. Oak obviously hides other flaws but it hides all the good things too. Maybe as I gain more experience I’ll be able to identify more unique characteristics in wine with heavy oak, but as of now I have a difficult time discerning much.
It’s like with coffee beans, Starbucks over roasts the crap out of all their beans and they all taste like burnt tire water and you never can tell what the bean actually tastes like. It’s consistent, but masks all the inherent characteristics of origin. I don’t get it.
Gosh - the Mannequin is one of the worst wines (taking price into account) that I can recall tasting. Literally the only wine that has gone down the sink and not into a hot pan.
Makes me a little scared for the bottle of Papillon I have been hanging on to, but I hear those are more enjoyable.