DP on Diam 3's

B

BJ

BJ
There was a go round on here a while back about Diams. I do have a little data set. The Mme and I are suckers for Chablis and so have a cheapie go-to - believe it or not the Sainte Celine from Trader Joe's, coming in at 14.99 currently. This is most definitely rebadged JM Brocard, and according to the back, a single vineyard 30 yo vine indigenous yeast Kimmeridgian thing. Sounds good to me. Always found Brocard to be good workin' man's Chablis.

Anyway - it's bottled with the Diam 3. We've gone through maybe four cases of the last 2-3 years. And - definite bottle variation. Prompt for this post is last bottle - definitely more closed and subdued than others, and I had a similar bottle 7 or 8 back. Even among good bottles, occasionally seems like one pops more.

Thoughts? Discuss.
 
For a Trader Joe's cheapie I would think it's more likely that literally different wines are being bottled under the same label (or at least the same wine in different lots) than that Diam is leading to pronounced variation over a period as short as 2-3 years. But isn't the whole point of using Diam instead of screwcaps to allow for more oxygen ingress, albeit within more controllable parameters? So whatever variation would otherwise occur as a result of oxygen ingress within that range is to be expected.
 
I would second what Keith wrote, especially since we are talking about two or three different vintages (right?). But if you buy them by the case, one would expect the bottles to have the same origin and "perform" the same.

With the amount of SO2 usually required to survive supermarket chain logistics, I'm surprised you haven't found these more shut down. But the SO2 ought to affect every bottle from the same batch in the same manner, so that probably wouldn't explain the variation that's puzzling you.
 
Did you open them all on the same type of biodynamic calendar day? Just kidding.

However, after many years of paying reasonably close attention, I don't think that a & b days are better and x & y days are worse, but there is still so much that we don't understand that it's not completely impossible that lunar gravity has some effect of some kind, even if not qualitative. So, whenever I want to compare bottles on different days, I try to open them on the same type of day. More out of geek fetish than any kind of science, since other interfering factors (like food and, possibly, barometric pressure) will vary.
 
originally posted by BJ:
DP on Diam 3'sThere was a go round on here a while back about Diams. I do have a little data set. The Mme and I are suckers for Chablis and so have a cheapie go-to - believe it or not the Sainte Celine from Trader Joe's, coming in at 14.99 currently. This is most definitely rebadged JM Brocard
Click to expand...

You sure about the source? If Brocard, then perhaps a side negoc project for them. Unlikely to be the same thing.

I think Pete actually hit the nail on the head when it comes to Trader Joe's. Ya pay for what ya get. And what one often got from TJ's was insurance loss wine (You all know what I mean: truck breaks down in the middle of the Central Valley in summer and the winery would prefer the money rather than distribute compromised product.) TJ's to the rescue! It is why, too, I eschew grey market, which often involves some rather convoluted shipping routes.
 
just to be clear, these are all purchased by the case. yes I am positive about the brocard source, down to the same bright green capsule and font in vineyard description.
 
Pretty happy with diam so far, among the wines we drink within 1 to 3 years of release. Have not been paying attention to the grade (does it actually say 3, etc. on the cork?), but can assume I've got a range here, given the range of the wines on hand.

Very small failure rate in the past two years; I can think of one bottle that could be described to have early symptoms of premature oxidation. And it was one of the least expensive bottles.

The other alternative closure that makes a frequent appearance at the house, namely screw cap, is giving me fits despite its zero failure rate within the same time frame - provided you don't count wine schizophrenia among the modes of failure. It would be kind of nice to know which of the three previously observed versions of your house godello or Chablis is going to make an appearance when you are working out the wine/food pairing earlier in the day, wouldn't you say? Is it going to be that perfect pop'n'pour bottle, or its unresponsive counterpart that does great after you untwist its cap for five seconds and stick it in the fridge to be served the day after? Or the kind that traverses the redox nebula to a point where you don't know if it's reductive or oxidative, and requires an unknown number of hours to attain sufficient freshness (which I am not confident it would do if abandoned in the cellar for another year)?

I'll take the diam.
 
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