Repa Winery Pinotype Cuvee 2013 - I purchased this bottle in Bratislava at the “Slovakian Wine Museum” in March 2016. They had a deal where you could taste as many of the 80+ wines they had as you wanted for 10 Euros, and this was apparently good enough to grab a bottle and schlep home where it has sat in the cellar since. The back label tells me is most Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc with a small amount of Pinot gris. It’s also apparently from Pezinok, Pezinsky, Malokarptská. It was aged for 6 months in 400L barriques, and the label suggests in could age for 1-3 years.
Poured and given 10 minutes to warm a little. The color is starting to golden a little, but the nose is full of tropical fruit notes and a bit of signs of the oak still. The first sip is really pleasant, with the tropical nots continuing, some floral hints on the finish, but dominated by the fruit carrying through for a long time. It Carrie’s only moderate weight, but feels very nice in the mouth. CT tells me this cost the equivalent of about $17, and it’s an absolute steal for that.
When that Espiral was $3.50 or $4, it was a regular “keep this around for a hot summer weeknight” sort of wine for us. We still pick one up from time to time, if we have an occasion that calls for a cheap, reliable, refreshing (if forgettable) sort of white.
Maison de Grand Esprit L’Être Magique Crémant de Bourgogne NV
When Chris announced this Charity Week I knew this was one of the bottles to open. This Costco Special came in a 6-pack, so this bottle has siblings! I opened one a few years ago and it was bad, but I optimistically thought “Let’s use it as a mixer for a party!” The joke is always on me: the pandemic put a halt to large gatherings and our friend group thinned substantially, so this sat for a few years.
The mousse is very vigorous. There isn’t much to the nose, but if I concentrate (which I didn’t want to) there’s a faint & weird commercial apple turnover scent. The first sip served as an unpleasant reminder why this lingered unloved for so long: a fake almond extract note immediately hits the palate and overwhelms the green apple in the background. Thank goodness none of the flavor lingers. It’s not as bad as it was a few years ago, but it’s in no way good. Four more bottles to go…
2007 Imagery Estate Winery Lagrein Paso Robles - USA, California, Central Coast, Paso Robles (11/30/2022)
Wine stains under capsule, cork saturated, poured through a strainer to catch the crunchies. Color of burnt automatic transmission fluid mixed with prune juice. No aromas to coincide with the color thank goodness. Faint hints of blackberry pie and toasty crust. Kind of a Zinfandel meets Sangiovese with rich blackberry fruit but sharp edges that softened after opened an hour. Big structure that will take several years to integrate like Sangio often does. Domestic Lagrein eh? I had no expectations ahead of time and it turns out to be a fairly pleasing wine that just needs time to blossom, despite the cork failure.
Sorry, no photo this time. Forgot before the bottle went out with the recycling.
Last night, we opened my lone remaining bottle of 2007 Lewelling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. When I opened my first bottle of this nine years ago, all of us who tasted it thought it was so over the top with alcohol heat and sweet fruit that none of us could finish it. It was easily the most disappointing wine I had that year and I’ve had no urge to open the other…until this good cause came along. Nice charity choice, Chris.
I’m happy (and surprised) to say that this wine has improved considerably in the last nine years. It’s still got plenty of alcoholic warmth but no longer comes across as flagrantly porty. The primary fruit has subsided, as has the oak to a certain extent, allowing some secondary elements (black licorice, coffee) to emerge and provide a better sense of balance. Don’t get me wrong…it’s still modern Napa to an extent that goes beyond my typically Cali-centric preferences. But, it’s no longer one to pour down the drain, and some will probably find it a better fit for their tastes than I did.
1997 Monte Antico Rosso Toscana IGT.
This bottle has been with my husband longer than he has been with me. It was originally stored under his bed and moved across 2 residences. When I moved in, this bottle was in a closet that gets hot during the summer. It should have been discarded immediately, but my husband suggested making vinegar with it. I have no interest in making vinegar, so the bottle sat a few more years in the pantry.
Upon removing the foil, my bad feeling turns worse upon discovering the plastic cork. It dawns on me that this is cheap wine (don’t know much about Italian wine, obviously). The wine is oxidized, brownish, & completely over the hill by decades. It smells like bad sherry about a foot from the glass. I don’t know what sour cooking sherry tastes like, but it probably tastes like this. I couldn’t spit it out fast enough. Everything was poured down the drain, but there is still a whiff of this unpleasantness around the sink.
For those that don’t the back story on terms like thunder bucket, disposing by toilet, and blowout challenge here is the greatest thread in the history of WB and it’s all about drinking terrible wine. This will motivate you to participate in this charity week.
Enjoy!
Actually one of the more decent Kirkland bottles I’ve had. Still tight with bright red fruit, sandalwood spice, and grippy tannins with a bit of an iron note. Probably could let it breathe or lay down a bit more than I did, but I wouldn’t expect it to go a super-long distance. Wouldn’t be ashamed to serve this to the non-wine snob crew at all, and would probably grab another for the $20 I think I paid if they still had more.
Do I have to taste it once I open it? I have these on a ‘Cull party with enemies’ shelf -
1982 Clos du Val Pinot Carneros (throw in when I got some ESJ on WineCommune years ago. No idea why I never popped it.)
1984 Ampeau & fils Volnay 1er Cru Santenots (good wine; terrible vintage; presumably dead)
1987 Jumilla Taja (a fun bargain wine in it’s time; this was bought as a close out years later and looks to be heat damaged. Probably the worst of this bunch)
2002 Loring Rosella’s PN (sealed with some sort of plastic cork that failed immediately, Brian was replacing these back in the day but I kept mine for some reason)
Not only do you have to taste it, you have to post a tasting note of some sort. At least to get credit for the purposes of this thread.
Maybe stop thinking of them as undrinkable bottles and start thinking about them as triggers for experiences. Or at least as a way to support a great charitable cause.
