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In Reply to: Re: The rule of diminishing returns in relation to wine... posted by satyr on July 02, 2001 at 07:45:51:
Satyr, interesting read. A couple of comments, you said "If you like "big, fruity, heavy" wines you could do better with a moderately priced Australian or Chilean wine but I must admit that these wines did have subtle nuances that you don't get in New World wines usually."I think most winos would agree with that statement. The new world wines do tend to be bigger, frutier, and heavier wines. They are hedonistic and for my tastes, they're too syrupy. They are massively tannic and full of oak, and as time passes, so does their prime. Whereas the french grand vins tend to be big and tannic in their youth (nowhere near as much as their new world counterparts), but the truly great ones will mature into something so refreshingly balanced. They even plateau where the real great ones (27's, 45's, 53's) get stuck in a time warp and seem almost defiant against aging. I've read similar sentiments from old vintage (mid 1800's) first growth vertical tastings where the lucky participants echoed similar thoughts.
Now, as for your fathers cellar, if those bottles were indeed properly stored, there is no reason they should have tasted like vinegar. For the great producers, 10 to 20 years is often well short of their prime. 20 years is a pretty short time for a great wine and there is no reason that one would turn south in less than 10 years other than poor storage, horrible vintage, or the wine was not from a a single vineyard and was instead a mass produced wine like the mouton-cadet.
If you are really looking for a big fruity mouthful of wine, you probably don't want to look at any 20 year old bordeaux save for the 86's and possibly some of the 82's like ducru- still, they will be no match for a glass of 97 opus one or any of the 1990-98 Beringer private reserve cabs which are overflowing with fresh fruit, oak, and have seriously high tannin levels.
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