1998 Les Cailloux CdP

J

Jon Cook

Jon Cook
First off...thanks to those involved in putting Wine Disorder into operation. Very nice. Not sure what took me so long to get here...

Now to the meat: has anyone experienced any prematurely dead bottles of 1998 Brunel Les Cailloux CdP? I recently went through my entire stash of 5 bottles to try and find one that wasn't rusty toilet water. No luck. All dead...demised...teats up...singing in the choir invisible.
You get the idea...

Did I miss the memo?

jon
 
originally posted by Jon Cook:
Now to the meat: has anyone experienced any prematurely dead bottles of 1998 Brunel Les Cailloux CdP? I recently went through my entire stash of 5 bottles to try and find one that wasn't rusty toilet water. No luck. All dead...demised...teats up...singing in the choir invisible.
You get the idea...

Did I miss the memo?

jon
Click to expand...

Lots of folks, including me, had that issue with the '95's. I drank my '98's and '99's early, which is the lesson I learned from the '95's. Will drink my last '00 soon.
 
The Cailloux seem to be variable in how long they last. I had a '00 a while back that seemed on the slope downhill, but then subsequent bottles (2 I think) had plenty of life. 2001 also has plenty of years (unless of course you hit the bad bottle again).

With 5 of them bad, I would suspect provenance or shipping...
 
Wow, I finished my 95's a couple of years ago. They were still lovely but didn't seem to have a whole lot left.
 
originally posted by Brad Kane:
originally posted by Jon Cook:
Now to the meat: has anyone experienced any prematurely dead bottles of 1998 Brunel Les Cailloux CdP? I recently went through my entire stash of 5 bottles to try and find one that wasn't rusty toilet water. No luck. All dead...demised...teats up...singing in the choir invisible.
You get the idea...

Did I miss the memo?

jon
Click to expand...

Lots of folks, including me, had that issue with the '95's. I drank my '98's and '99's early, which is the lesson I learned from the '95's. Will drink my last '00 soon.
Click to expand...

Thanks BK. Do you think the 95 VT and Beaucastel fall into that group? Those were tight, backward wines not too long ago with the potential for emerging on the other side as nice, drinkable CdPs.
 
My 95s have all been fine and still are. My 98s taste far more mature than they should for age 10 but are not dead. And, with greater or lesser development, I would say the same for all les Cailloux since then. For a wine that used to age with the best of them, that is just no longer the case.
 
Hello,
Mr Brunel is very closed to the magic oenologue you knows...
Best regards
pierre-alain
 
originally posted by Joe Dressner:
David:

What constitutes a stash?
Click to expand...

lannymcdonald.jpg
 
originally posted by pab:
Hello,
Mr Brunel is very closed to the magic oenologue you knows...
Best regards
pierre-alain
Click to expand...

Well the magic oenologue certainly does tend to produce the kinds of wines that one would expect would come from magic. I haven't had the experience of him reducing age-worthiness however. His greatest atrocities are the new cuvees, usually.
 
Another data point...
we opened a bottle of '98 Brunel Les Cailloux last night...color was a little advanced...the nose was sound...this was a mature showing but had good fruit and complexity.. overall quite enjoyable and this particular bottle clearly wasn't "dead" by any stretch...
A '98 Domaine du Marcoux CndP was less interesting but a bit more youthful in character...little upside evident...
 
Opened the '00 Les Cailloux for a bunch of the usuals tonight. I found it fairly pedestrian and not aging particularly well and it's been in a Eurocave since release. I'm finding these wines best, to my tastes, within the first five or so years of release.

My last bottle of Les Cailloux, Given current pricing, profile and aging curve, it's an easy pass for me.
 
The 2005 Cailloux is one of the best in recent years, competing with the 2001. Otherwise I agree with you, the 2000 is on the pedestrian side and I am no longer excited enough to buy these. They don't seem to improve significantly with age...
 
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