Sure… this wine is on the downhill slope, but IMO like many great wines, it’s a slow gentle descent into that good night rather than a rapid vertical dive.
The downside? Well, the nose wasn’t terribly inviting, with plum and cherry scents hiding behind putrefied fruits and vegetables.
However, it performed much better on the palate. This wine still has excellent poise and balance, plenty of acidity, and lots of tart dessicated cherry and plum fruit flavors. Considering that this is a 39 year old Zin, I can only imagine what this wine must have tasted like at its peak, but thankfully the remaining silhouette gives enough definition to get a fairly good hint!
Thanx for the note. I’ve been buying some older Ridges, but the Jimsomare is harder to find. We had the 1991 recently, along with the Santa Cruz and Monte Bello, and the Jimsomare was my favorite…though all three were wonderful.
It bears mentioning that this bottle had a mid shoulder fill, and the cork really didn’t have a great seal, (it pushed into the bottle when using an ah so to remove it), so it was probably letting a bit to much air in over the past 39 years.
But still, Jim’s note really describes the wine for me. It was still very interesting to drink, especially good with a bit of cheddar, and really much more enjoyable than a 2001 Reignac that Jim also opened.
Yes, the '01 Reignac definitely performed under expectations. Pretty nose, but it ultimately came off as a bit tarted-up given the relatively hollow midpalate and fairly short finish. As we remarked at the time, it was fairly austere and lacked the richness that you expect from a right bank wine.
I guess perception might have been different if the Reignac was a $12-15 wine… but for nearly double, there are plenty of small '05s that I’d rather drink.