Thought I’d post a tasting note from this wine, which I opened last Saturday evening.
This was the second bottle I’ve tasted from my meager stash. This wine was thick and oily. The color was disturbingly a little more gold than I would have liked. This bottle showed good thrust and energy, but the wine did not have the sharp precision and length of a bottle tasted a year ago. The citric flavors were a bit diffuse, although the wine did get more focus with time in the glass. Not sure if this is bottle variation or whether this wine is headed downhill. Going to try another bottle soon to see if I need to move up consumption.
This sounds very much like the start of premature oxidation setting in on this bottle- the shortened finish and the lack of cut and bounce on the backends are early signs of premox rearing its ugly head. IME, from this point on, you generally have about six months before the wine starts to show overt signs of oxidation and becomes uninteresting to drink. If premox was a bit more uniform in its plague, rather than bottle by bottle, I would strongly suggest drinking up yoru remaining stash while the wine is still drinking pretty well, but the next bottle may be completely unaffected and still quite young. Ten years of age would generally be a bit young for primetime drinking of the Ramonet Ruchottes, but with premox, this may be a good time to bid the remaining bottles adieu in the near future.
Best,
John
Al,
The '99 Ruchottes has major oxidation problems. A shame because it was brilliant on release. I think I’ve had it about 6 times over the past two or so years and all but one were oxidized. Some were from different sources (i.e., not my stash).
Cheers,
-Robert
John - Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that is what I am worried about, but the randomness of premox affects any strategy after purchase. I should have finished them several years ago, but it is Ramonet Ruchottes and it should age.
Robert - I didn’t realize this wine has been having many reported problems. Sigh. Oh well. I’ll check in on another and cross my fingers.
Yeah, that’s the real shame here. It was so brilliant on release. And really should age. I’ve had the '93 a couple of times in the past few years and it has still been really closed and primary. Just a baby. What a shame, I feel your pain.
Cheers,
-Robert
I am amazed that you got this mileage out of a 99 Ramonet. Premox freakin disaster.
Maybe the importer should take all of these back, a la Sierra Carche. I am partly serious. We buy no Ramonet anymore.