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I hope to share my experiences tasting and enjoying wine. My method requires no special abilities, training, or extra-sensory perception.
My approach to wine tasting is simple: wine should taste good.However, when dealing with wine below a certain level, numerous negative characteristic appear that detract from the excellence of the experience.
Here are some of the criteria I use to taste wine:
Greenness – many wines contain highly unpleasant flavors which taste like green, un-ripened fruit. The degree to which this characteristic is balanced, subsumed, or absent determines contributes to the enjoyment of the wine.
Bitterness - The great weakness of many wines. Its absence characterizes the smooth, rich quality of fine wines.
Some other characteristics which may be present at various levels and combinations are sourness, mold-like flavors which I call skunkiness, sandiness or chalkiness, and the like.
Positive attributes include oak-barrel flavors, richness of flavor, smoothness and refinement, and so on. These factors enhance the enjoyment of wine.
The scale that I use for judging the degree to which any characteristics are present is as follows:
High
Middle – high moderate, moderate, low moderate
LowAnd now, onward to the tasting.
Follow Ups:
Age. More specifically, how *well* an older wine has aged. In my lifetime it's been fun to buy a half-case or a case and dip in every couple of years to observe the curve.There are disappointments, and there are delightful surprises.
I still have a couple bottles of a 1978 California "Burgundy" that, for maybe five minutes, duplicate the real thing.
clark
Napa Valley
"25th Anniversary"
$27 retail/$15 discountWhile it's immediately obvious that this Cab belongs to an over $20 class, the high degree of dryness combines with elevated sourness to make it inferior to many cheaper wines, such as the outstanding Trinchero Cab (listed above).
Even more disappointing are the low but present levels of greenness and moldiness ("skunkiness"), traits which we expect be either hidden (that is, balanced with complimentary traits) or under control at this price class.
Maipo Valley, Chile
$10As on drinks it, this Cab quickly turns sour, leaving a thin, seperated flavor that grows in bitterness, contradicting the oak casket aging that remains its only virtue.
We have here a good example of how much wines have improved over the last decade.
This over rated property has asked for some outrageous prices in recent years. Their premium label "Don Melchor Private Reserve" used to sell for $12. Now I think it's about $40 or more. I made the mistake of buying about 8 bottles at Garnet of the 1988 vintage on WS recommendation. It was originally rated 91. Then they lowered their rating to 79. Well when I dipped into my stash, it was true, the wine had gone bad. I don't give people a second chance, especially when they've raised their prices after a disaster. BTW, much of their competition in Chile is IMO also overrated. I bought a case of the 1990 Erazuriz Don Maximo from a well reputed wine merchant in Manhattan (he's run to the Hamptons probably to escape a lot of angry customers) on his recommendation. The wine was a perfect immitation of battery acid. About the only South American wine I enjoyed was Casa LaPistolle Cuve Alexander Merlot. Weinart wines from next door Argentina which RP recommended were not very good IMO and way overrated. I'll stick with Aussie and Cal Cabs...IF and when they can keep their prices in line.
California, Trinchero Family Estate
1998 vintage $10
1999 vintage $111998 - Not competative with the better examples of its class, such as the Trinchero 2002 Cab and the Asti Cellar No. 8 2000 cab (proof of how markedly affordable wines have improved year after year since the mid 90s), this Cab is characterized by higher levels of bitterness and dryness.
There is virtually no oak casket aging evident. While not a bad wine - its greenness is well hidden and it shows some care in the balance of its various components - it nevertheless falls short of better rivals.
1999 - Nearly everything I said of the 1998 vintage is also true here, except that oak casket aging, as noted on the label, is in evidence. In greater evidence also is greenness of the fruit and all of the previously noted bitterness.
The wine remains resolutely in the dry end of the spectrum, adding to it a bright, tart finish, which, lacking a proper counterweight, reduces enjoyment.
In all, not really bad, but one can do much better.
Cab Sauv, 2000 $12.00Along with the Trinchero 2002 Cab Sauv, this Cab is a reigning champion in the under $20 class. It is, indeed, flatly superior to some pricier reds, such as the Steltzner 2000 Cab ($27), or the Rutherford Hill 1999 Cab (see report, above), if not as good as the Trinchero (which stands as best in class, for the moment).
Cellar No. 8 features moderate-low bitterness, more than a modicum of refinement, which, along with its well-endowed oak barrel aging,
catupult it well above its rivals.It also lacks the repellent moldiness ("skunkiness") that afflicts so many wines, particularly in the sub $50 group.
The main weakness of this Cab is a moderate level of astringency that becomes more and more apparent as one nears the bottom of one's glass.
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