TN: 2004 Long Shadows Feather

[Steve_Saxon]

Thanks for the note Carrie, it’s nice to know your group agreed with me.

[Bill_Tex_Landreth]

@Steve Saxon

Thanks for the note Carrie, it’s nice to know your group agreed with me.

The Todd has spoken.

[Steve_Saxon]

@Bill Tex Landreth

@Steve Saxon

Thanks for the note Carrie, it’s nice to know your group agreed with me.

The Todd has spoken.

I spoke first.

[Tom_Palmer]

Hi Steve,

I’m glad to hear you do find wines in WA that fit your style. Cadence is one of my favorites as well… hope we get a chance to taste together.

Still perplexed by the '04 LS falling apart though. Carrie had the same experience so I can’t totally blame this on you… (grin)

Six years isn’t very long. I can find '04’s still on shelves locally and even ten dollar St. Michelle or Columbia Crest bottles have plenty of fruit left.

If this was Burgundy and we opened a fifty dollar bottle of '04 with no nose, no flavor and was a mess we would be told to quit drinking village wine and count our lucky stars we almost tasted terroir.

If this was an '04 Bordeaux with no nose or fruit we would be told it was shutdown and in a dumb phase.

But if it’s WA wine and has no nose or flavor then Randy Dunn is an idiot.
-------- insert rimshot here-------

Of course I’m kidding! I do enjoy your tasting notes and sorry to hear about the LS debacle. We need to organize a group of locals and see if anyone can bring a WA syrah you actually like.

[Tom_Lee]

@Megan Bushnell

I tasted an 03 Feather at a wine dinner on saturday. Worst wine on the table (out of about 26 WA wines).

I’ve become pretty anti-Long Shadows of late. Nothing I’ve tasted has aged beneficially at all.

I had an 03 Pedestal recently that was tremendous. That is my lone data point that I can contribute to this thread.

Tom

[rich_g_r_a_h_a_m]

@C. Bowman

The experiment was fun. I popped the '04 at 6pm and bagged it for a blind tasting at 7 pm with Todd Anderson, Van and a group of people. Todd’s comment were almost word for word the same as Steve’s. He started out thinking it was a young tight bordeaux. After 15 minutes of swirling, smelling, tasting, Todd said Washington, maybe 2000, possibly younger. Van was sure it was pre 1999 and probably Napa but definitely not French and was very strange.
Everyone’s impressions including mine were, very little to no nose, tannic, boring, very little on the palate and the longer it sat the worse it got. Toward the end of the night (5 hrs later) there was nothing at all left, of course by that time we had been through the full lineup of Ghost Horse, '05 Marths’s, etc etc, The balance of the bottle flowed it’s way down sink.

That doesn’t seem like much of an experiment. I didn’t like the 2003 at all and it didn’t get better Night 1, but Night 2 was a miraculous recovery. Not that I am doubting the results, but seems like a bottle that is bad is awlays worthy of a night 2 or 3 sip before the drain.

[C_Bowman]

@rich g r a h a m

That doesn’t seem like much of an experiment. I didn’t like the 2003 at all and it didn’t get better Night 1, but Night 2 was a miraculous recovery. Not that I am doubting the results, but seems like a bottle that is bad is awlays worthy of a night 2 or 3 sip before the drain.

We tasted it at 7:00p.m. and then again at 1:00a.m. it was the next day.
With as many people with varying palates that tasted it several times over the course of the evening and it didn’t show well at any point, I can’t imagine it was going to all of a sudden come out of its shell today, I guess it could be at a dumb stage. Maybe I should have kept it and tried it today but after having really liked the wine previously I was hoping it would show better at some point last night and it never did… C’est la vie

[Steve_Saxon]

@C. Bowman

@rich g r a h a m

That doesn’t seem like much of an experiment. I didn’t like the 2003 at all and it didn’t get better Night 1, but Night 2 was a miraculous recovery. Not that I am doubting the results, but seems like a bottle that is bad is awlays worthy of a night 2 or 3 sip before the drain.

We tasted it at 7:00p.m. and then again at 1:00a.m. it was the next day.
With as many people with varying palates that tasted it several times over the course of the evening and it didn’t show well at any point, I can’t imagine it was going to all of a sudden come out of its shell today, I guess it could be at a dumb stage. Maybe I should have kept it and tried it today but after having really liked the wine previously I was hoping it would show better at some point last night and it never did… C’est la vie

Well I still have my bottle Carrie and I just tasted it again. All I can say is that only a dumb person would believe it’s in a dumb phase, this wine is completely gone.

[Anthony_Lombardi]

I went to a private long shadows tasting at esquin a couple of years ago. I found Feather to be exactly as Steve described it. My highlight was Alan Shoup looking at me like I had a third eye when I asked about the residual sugar level in the poets leap riesling.

The only wine I owned of theirs was 2005 Sequel Syrah as I am a big fan of Duval. The only bottle I tried was earlier this year and completely over the hill.

[Joel_Pulver]

I can not add any insight into the LS Feather.

I can say that I have tried numerous bottles of the Pedestal Merlot 2004 - 2007 (most recently approx 1 week ago) and next to Leonetti, I have found this to be routinely a 91 to 94 point wine that lives up to the hype.

[Rick_Gregory]

Hmm CT has several notes diametrically opposite of what Carrie and Steve tasted. My first thought was whether the wine was TCA tainted just enough to strip it of fruit… but if this is showing in several bottles that’s indicative either of a high rate of cork issues (issues on the corks themselves) or a tainted batch.

[J_a_y_C_a_i_n]

@Steve Saxon

All I can say is that only a dumb person would believe it’s in a dumb phase, this wine is completely gone.

Hey!! Wait a minute!! Wasn’t that me?

[Steve_Saxon]

@J a y C a i n

@Steve Saxon

All I can say is that only a dumb person would believe it’s in a dumb phase, this wine is completely gone.

Hey!! Wait a minute!! Wasn’t that me?

No, you didn’t try this wine.

[mike_pobega]

Jay, just remember:
It’s easy to grin when your ship comes in and you’ve got the stock market beat. But the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat.

[Ed_Murray]

Don’t know about the Feather but I had a 2003 Sequel last night that was showing VERY well. Tons of up front fruit, (blueberry) a bit of burnt rubber on the nose but not too bad, nice spicy palate with an absolutely killer smokey peppery bacon finish that lasted forever. Unfortunately that was MY take. Joan’s take was “Yuck! Gaack! Ugh! I can’t take all this blueberry mess.”

…so I went downstairs and brought up a Burgundy.

At least I know where I stand!

[Steve_Saxon]

@Ed Murray

Don’t know about the Feather but I had a 2003 Sequel last night that was showing VERY well. Tons of up front fruit, (blueberry) a bit of burnt rubber on the nose but not too bad, nice spicy palate with an absolutely killer smokey peppery bacon finish that lasted forever. Unfortunately that was MY take. Joan’s take was “Yuck! Gaack! Ugh! I can’t take all this blueberry mess.”

…so I went downstairs and brought up a Burgundy.

At least I know where I stand!

What’s wrong with you Ed? Even I know not to serve up a younger American cab or syrah to Joan…stick to 1991 and older.

Seems like 03 was a good year for LS, as I stated before, I liked the 03 Pirouette and Pedestal.

[Ed_Murray]

@Steve Saxon

@Ed Murray

Don’t know about the Feather but I had a 2003 Sequel last night that was showing VERY well. Tons of up front fruit, (blueberry) a bit of burnt rubber on the nose but not too bad, nice spicy palate with an absolutely killer smokey peppery bacon finish that lasted forever. Unfortunately that was MY take. Joan’s take was “Yuck! Gaack! Ugh! I can’t take all this blueberry mess.”

…so I went downstairs and brought up a Burgundy.

At least I know where I stand!

What’s wrong with you Ed? Even I know not to serve up a younger American cab or syrah to Joan…stick to 1991 and older.

Seems like 03 was a good year for LS, as I stated before, I liked the 03 Pirouette and Pedestal.

Yeah, I shoulda’ known - can’t slip anything past her. I opened it because of this thread, it was a one-off purchase as part of an auction lot.

'03 Pedestal is definitely also very nice. It’s interesting how these wines are developing however I must say I’m kinda glad I don’t have many of them.

[Steve_Saxon]

@Ed Murray

@Steve Saxon

@Ed Murray

Don’t know about the Feather but I had a 2003 Sequel last night that was showing VERY well. Tons of up front fruit, (blueberry) a bit of burnt rubber on the nose but not too bad, nice spicy palate with an absolutely killer smokey peppery bacon finish that lasted forever. Unfortunately that was MY take. Joan’s take was “Yuck! Gaack! Ugh! I can’t take all this blueberry mess.”

…so I went downstairs and brought up a Burgundy.

At least I know where I stand!

What’s wrong with you Ed? Even I know not to serve up a younger American cab or syrah to Joan…stick to 1991 and older.

Seems like 03 was a good year for LS, as I stated before, I liked the 03 Pirouette and Pedestal.

Yeah, I shoulda’ known - can’t slip anything past her. I opened it because of this thread, it was a one-off purchase as part of an auction lot.

'03 Pedestal is definitely also very nice. It’s interesting how these wines are developing however I must say I’m kinda glad I don’t have many of them.

I’m glad I don’t have anymore either but I might buy one for Floaty Friday and tell Joan that I heard she loves the stuff.

[Ed_Murray]

@Steve Saxon

I’m glad I don’t have anymore either but I might buy one for Floaty Friday and tell Joan that I heard she loves the stuff.

That would be pretty funny!
(Disclaimer - Serving WA wine to Joan should only be attempted by professionals and only while wearing appropriate protective gear, a cup. Be warned that serving WA wine to Joan may cause severe headache, nausea, bruising, loss of memory and sometimes… loss of teeth.)

[Steve_Saxon]

@Ed Murray

@Steve Saxon

I’m glad I don’t have anymore either but I might buy one for Floaty Friday and tell Joan that I heard she loves the stuff.

That would be pretty funny!
(Disclaimer - Serving WA wine to Joan should only be attempted by professionals and only while wearing appropriate protective gear, a cup. Be warned that serving WA wine to Joan may cause severe headache, nausea, bruising, loss of memory and sometimes… loss of teeth.)

that explains a lot.