TN: 2011 Ganevat Plein Sud Trousseau

M

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis
Here is something I wrote that resembles a tasting note:

Lively, edgy, fruity aroma. This has some spritz on first pour from the dissolved CO2 and needs to be decanted to let it blow off. Then deep, red-fruited Trousseau, but fun and playful, not too serious. Since this vintage first hit US shores, it has really put on some weight and the fruit has come to the foreground. It is quite a dramatic improvement from when I first tasted it. Very drinkable at 11.5%.

Additional commentary:

I despised this wine when I first opened a bottle within days of its US release. It seemed thin, fruitless and out of whack. That was this past February. My reaction to 2011 J'En Veux was similar at the time. The concept of travel shock always struck me as a bit fanciful. Sure, shipping a wine can stir up sediment - particularly in older wines - but aside from that I did not think shipping a wine could have a major impact on performance, lasting days or weeks. I am starting to reevaluate this belief. It is hard to imagine that this kind of a change is due to regular development over the last eight months or so.
 
Micheal,
No chemist I, but travel shock/bottle shock is something I have come to believe in - a recent article I read put it down, in part, to redox potential.
Whatever, anecdotal evidence is all to frequent to ignore.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Michael Lewis: over the last eight months or so.
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I believe in travel shock, so no argument there. But in my limited experience, eight months is a lot of time for all kinds of changes/variation.
 
Jim, do you have a link to that article?

I don't have a mechanism for travel shock, but I certainly have enough anecdotes to fill my proof bag.
 
With newly released wines, the improvement in the months after shipping seems to me much more likely to represent recovery from bottling than recovery from travel.
 
Mike, as others have mentioned it may have been bottle shock, which is very real especially with lighter reds. Around here pinot noir can take up to six months to fully recover while the cabernets seem to bounce right back.
 
Well, does anyone know when Ganevat bottled the 2011 Plein Sud? I often assume his wines were bottled many months before they are released here because they are available much earlier in France. Given how little wine there is for each cuvee, I would not have thought that he would do separate bottlings for the US market, but perhaps I am mistaken.
 
convinced the table to get this last week (in paris)—38 euros was the post-markup price. also a bit of spritz but the waiter brought a decanter with him. it was quite beautiful and served at the right temperature: warmed strawberries, light-bodied but concentrated, with enough acid to be very interesting and not the least bit tiring.
 
originally posted by Florida Jim:
originally posted by Marc D:
Does travel shock affect white wines as much as reds?
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I think it depends on age but I have no science to back that up.
Best, Jim
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My experience is that it can affect all kinds of wines, but not at all consistently. We taste all the new wines that come in off of every container for shock, and hold back the wines that aren't showing well. The OP's description of the problem sounds like shipping shock, the flesh recedes and the bones are more visible. Within a couple of weeks it usually improves, within two months the wine is usually back to normal.
 
I don't think it's a good idea to ship wines soon (say, a month or so) after bottling, but that's anecdotal and conjectural on my part.
 
I think that cork-finished bottles are usually left upright for a few days after bottling to let everything settle down. But my policy after that is to ship the wine, if we have to let it settle for a few weeks so be it.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
I think that cork-finished bottles are usually left upright for a few days after bottling to let everything settle down. But my policy after that is to ship the wine, if we have to let it settle for a few weeks so be it.
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Hmm, why would it be any different for screwcapped wines?
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
I think that cork-finished bottles are usually left upright for a few days after bottling to let everything settle down. But my policy after that is to ship the wine, if we have to let it settle for a few weeks so be it.
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Hmm, why would it be any different for screwcapped wines?
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I dimly recall that you want the cork to re-expand fully after insertion before you change the orientation of the bottle. Screwcaps are finished as soon as they are formed onto the bottle.

The shipping shock aspect of it is, I presume, the same. I don't keep track of any difference between the closures in this regard, though.
 
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