I am prepared for a bad bottle every now and then but this has to be the worst 24 hr record that I have encountered. Of 7 bottles opened, 5 were undrinkably flawed. Admittedly, I did open some high risk whites ('02s) but these are the worst overall results I have had.
The flawed wines were:
2 btls '02 Jobard Meursault Genevrieres - Some bottles have been amazing but both of these were completely shot (premox).
'02 Matrot Meursault Perrieres - Also dead (premox)
'09 Boillot Puligny Clos de la Mouchere - Extremely reduced on opening. Recorked and still reduced on day two. Now corked and in intensive (refrigerator) care to see if it comes around.
'08 Liger Belair Nuits St Georges Cras - This too is wildly reductive. Recorked and will check back over several days but I am not optimistic.
Fortunately their were two (big) winners:
'08 D’Angerville Volnay Taillepieds- This is just gorgeous. Fresh, intense, complex and everything one looks for in Volnay. Buy more!
'08 Bouchard Bonnes Mares - Deeply pitched complex earthy nose. Vibrant, poised and perfectly balanced with a lot of potential. Lovely.
The premox I guess is to be expected, but the heavy reduction isn’t fun to deal with…I put my '08 Liger Belairs away, and at this stage, I guess I will leave them alone…thanks though for taking on for the team, is about all the good I can say!!
I’d love to hear strategies for working around reduction in wines…intuitively, some air should help. More reduction: more air. In practice, this has not always been the case and I have had bottles that never get out of the reduction funk. It resolves with adequate bottle age, right?
When I read notes like this, it reaffirms that white Burgs are too much of a gamble, especially at some of the insane prices. Sorry to hear the bad luck, Kevin.
There’s a difference between reduction in the electrochemical sense and reduced volatile sulfides, what people usually smell as reduction. IIRC some reduced volatile sulfur compounds are permanent. You could oxidize the heck out of a wine, but it might still smell like mercaptans in some cases.
Fred,
I often encounter reduction in white wines and it usually blows off with air. If it is strong, I recork the bottle and put it in the refrigerator. More often than not, the reduction will resolve over 3-4 days. If not, I don’t hold much hope for cellaring other bottles.
Reduction in reds is more problematic and doesn’t resolve as easily. I use the same strategy but it rarely works.
Just had (and 2 days later am still having) the 2006 D’Angerville Volnay Champans. Upon being opened on Saturday it could not have smelled worse. A distinct combination of dank basement, mint and moth balls. The only reason we didn’t write this off as corked was because it actually tasted sort of okay. On day 2 most of the utter foulness had left but it still mainly smelled of pottery clay and had terribly clunkiness in the old flavor and structure category. It didn’t really even taste like Pinot to be honest. Tonight it has fully come around and while the pottery soil aromatic lingers there is ripe sweet and savory fruit sneaking into the background. The tannins have become less blocky and while still pretty macho they are fine in the context of the sweet red fruit. This clearly needs time but I’m pretty happy with the very raw material and am probably more committed to the '06 vintage after this than I was before it. Incidentally an '06 Mugnier Chambolle went down very easily right off the bat and while it is probably not now or ever going to be the '02 it’s still pretty damn good juice.
Nothing at all wrong with drinking White Burgs. young, in fact I do it quite often…
The trade off in lack of some complexity is made up in the drive and verve of of the younger wines, one of the reasons I have been enjoying young '07’s so much, and have had a few good '08 and '09 GC’s Whites already…
I agree I love them young and the young acidity with the spine of the terroir has really got me hooked. A recent 2008 Blain-Gagnard Batard Montrachet was mind blowing…
Kevin, agree on the Liger Belair, I opened a bottle of this and kept quiet. Matrot are a real worry. Jobard I am surprised about. BTW just opened an 02 Dauvissat Sechet - no oxidation, chalky and mineral with just enough fruit fatness- there are some good ones out there.
Kevin, were these Francois (now Antoine) or Remi? I have my fingers crossed as the 02 Francois Jobard Meursaults were riveting wines when first released and I cellared them. (I had the 04 Bourgogne last night and it was spendid.) Thanks.
