Bring me da funk!
I wonder how many mature bottles are cast aside within minutes of opening, rejected as spoiled, given the stink that oftentimes emits from an open bottle. This bottle was imminently clean on the outside, cork top was a bit musty, but the cork came out perfectly. Conditions looked good. But damn, did this wine stink. “I’m like, dang momma, what be wrong wit you!”
Toss it in the decanter and let some air do its thing. I gave it 30 minutes.
Well, still funky, but more of a mature Bordeaux musky perfume. The wine is in perfect condition.
The nose is quite complex behind the mist of funk: Sweet cassis, wet saddle leather, maduro tobacco, old barn wood. The palate is richly intense, a deep array of red fruits lifted by a solid core of acid. I’ve noticed with more time in the decanter, and softer dark fruit notes, plumminess, are coming to the fore, rounding the wine out nicely. It’s medium weight, soft and resolved tannins, just really lovely.
I know these wines are quite different in some respects, but this wine is so reminiscent to me of a 1986 Montrose I had some years back, whose funky, musky, sweaty, red-fruited qualities were intoxicating. This Sociando is not quite the same depth of complexity, has less depth in the mid-palate, and shorter crisp finish, but there are some similarities here.