Jeff Connell
Jeff Connell
2002 Bluegill Finger Lakes Cabernet Franc, Clark Scott
The last bottle of a wine that's in the drink and hold zone can't be picked for the prime moment. On the other hand, just about any minute is the right one. So, with the bottle open it's obvious the wine has a future - if there was another bottle to hold.
But there isn't, so drink and taste. Some of you will remember the elevated volatile acidity of the fresh wine. There is a big show of that here, right out of the bottle. But it blows off. You may also remember that this was not a tannic wine. It's about mature fruit - and the world that came in on the skins - in a wine that achieved 11 degrees of alcohol at completion.
With Seven and a half years in the bottle, the fruit is not primary, if it ever was. It does seem fully infused into the alcohol. With aeration it opens, its taut corpulesence giving body to lots of good flavour. Then there is a wonderful, forthright peppery side, which is the coup de grace.
If you find any of this on wine bid, don't let me know - 'cause I'll outbid you: It's a strong drink and hold, but my position is drunk.
Marynissen 1993 Gewurztraminer, Marynissen Vineyard, Niagara-on-the-Lake
This wine bears no relation to the Bluegill, except for coincidental consumption, and the possibility that this may also have been the last bottle. (Though I'm hoping to find another.) Oddly, and interestingly, it relates much more to, say, Tyrell's Vat 1, the Hunter Valley Semillon, at maybe twenty-five to thirty years of age.
Green acidity may be the reference point, but it is well-cured and appealing. The fruit is neither identifiable nor departed - but slowly grilled into tertiary compounds of some sort. Trace elements of varietal character to be sure. The wine may have slowly fully saturated with oxygen, but it is more inoxidable than oxidized.
I'm not sure who else might like it, but for people of a certain Loupy frame of mind it holds great charm.
Finally, just a brief note in refence to addictive Champagne: Billecart-Salmon 1985 Cuvee Nicolas Franois Billecart. Not the last bottle, actually, the only bottle. It was such a high when this was all one might hope for and dream of. Time in the bottle has brought about a union of fruit and mineral in a rich, deep golden weave. I've been savouring the taste ever since, and pining.
The last bottle of a wine that's in the drink and hold zone can't be picked for the prime moment. On the other hand, just about any minute is the right one. So, with the bottle open it's obvious the wine has a future - if there was another bottle to hold.
But there isn't, so drink and taste. Some of you will remember the elevated volatile acidity of the fresh wine. There is a big show of that here, right out of the bottle. But it blows off. You may also remember that this was not a tannic wine. It's about mature fruit - and the world that came in on the skins - in a wine that achieved 11 degrees of alcohol at completion.
With Seven and a half years in the bottle, the fruit is not primary, if it ever was. It does seem fully infused into the alcohol. With aeration it opens, its taut corpulesence giving body to lots of good flavour. Then there is a wonderful, forthright peppery side, which is the coup de grace.
If you find any of this on wine bid, don't let me know - 'cause I'll outbid you: It's a strong drink and hold, but my position is drunk.
Marynissen 1993 Gewurztraminer, Marynissen Vineyard, Niagara-on-the-Lake
This wine bears no relation to the Bluegill, except for coincidental consumption, and the possibility that this may also have been the last bottle. (Though I'm hoping to find another.) Oddly, and interestingly, it relates much more to, say, Tyrell's Vat 1, the Hunter Valley Semillon, at maybe twenty-five to thirty years of age.
Green acidity may be the reference point, but it is well-cured and appealing. The fruit is neither identifiable nor departed - but slowly grilled into tertiary compounds of some sort. Trace elements of varietal character to be sure. The wine may have slowly fully saturated with oxygen, but it is more inoxidable than oxidized.
I'm not sure who else might like it, but for people of a certain Loupy frame of mind it holds great charm.
Finally, just a brief note in refence to addictive Champagne: Billecart-Salmon 1985 Cuvee Nicolas Franois Billecart. Not the last bottle, actually, the only bottle. It was such a high when this was all one might hope for and dream of. Time in the bottle has brought about a union of fruit and mineral in a rich, deep golden weave. I've been savouring the taste ever since, and pining.