TN: In the cellar (July 29, 2016)

J

Jeff Grossman

Jeff Grossman
Dan from Buenos Aires, Jay, Dotster, Jeff

Pepiere 2009 Muscadet "Ch. Thebaud" - yum

Ceretto 1988 Dolcetto "Rossano" - dark and brilliant color, nice structure but a little too far over the hill into sour mash

Clos Roche Blanche 2013 Gamay - muted, lots of earth but Jay is unhappy with it

Prager 2007 Steinriegl Smaragd Riesling - vivid and tasty
 
I think the CRB was just a bit closed, though I suspected TCA at first. I didn't get to revisit it.

the Thebaud was beautiful. The Dolcetto was over the hill.
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
I think the CRB was just a bit closed, though I suspected TCA at first. I didn't get to revisit it.

the Thebaud was beautiful. The Dolcetto was over the hill.
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TCA in CRB wouldn't be surprising.
 
Curious what you mean Mike, was there an issue in the cellar, or bad corks? I haven't had as much CRB in recent years, since they got discovered by the newbies and the Gamay wasn't $7 anymore (I'm kidding!). But honestly I never experienced or haven't ever heard of an issue. Thoughts?
 
originally posted by Vincent Fritzsche:
Curious what you mean Mike, was there an issue in the cellar, or bad corks? I haven't had as much CRB in recent years, since they got discovered by the newbies and the Gamay wasn't $7 anymore (I'm kidding!). But honestly I never experienced or haven't ever heard of an issue. Thoughts?
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I've had a much higher than expected number of corked wines from CRB, though most of the bottles I've run into this with have been 1995 to 2002 vintages. Just in the past 4 years, I've had corked bottles of 1998 and 2000 Côt and of 2000 Sauvignon. I think it is/was probably a cork quality issue. I suspect that a lot of questionable corks got dumped on the Loire, not unlike what apparently happened to the Antipodes, because their price points limited what they could pay for corks and the international wine press paid much less attention to the Loire regions than to many others, so the reputational risk to the cork industry wasn't as great.

My hatred of the cork industry may be impairing my judgment and leading me to concoct a wild conspiracy theory, but they were sufficiently evil in the 1990s in their campaign of denial that I can live with being a little nutty about them.
 
As Mike says, my experience is also that there was a higher rate of evil corks in CRB bottles than in general. And being in CRB bottles makes them even more evil than when they appear elsewhere.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Ceretto 1988 Dolcetto "Rossano" - dark and brilliant color, nice structure but a little too far over the hill into sour mash
Click to expand...
I opened my remaining bottle of this. Slightly better: still more structure than fruit, gravelly, near death but not rattling quite so loudly. Improves with air and with being served next to a steak.

ETA: Next day, this has improved quite a bit. Still rustic and earthy but the fruit has revived a bit and the jangly structure has retreated a bit. Did OK with a red sauce - sausage - pasta dinner.
 
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