Seals (not the furry kind)

oh well…

By billn on September 01, 2020 #degustation#seals (not the furry kind)

Ah – the anticipation. The ritual of opening so carefully. Not to mention finding the right filter for the photos!

Previous bottles of this from Bertagna were fabulous, but: Ah – the cloudy wine. The smell of mushrooms, of beef, of cork – lots and lots of cork! The sound of wine pouring down the sink because we don’t have the chance to make beef bourguignon in the next week or so…

corks – as always

By billn on June 28, 2020 #seals (not the furry kind)

corked and not corked

Having opened the wine of the Comtesse (de Vazeilles) at the end of last week, I thought why not take in the wine of the Comte (Liger-Belair) to start my weekend(?) – You can see that it is the small things that amuse me!

Clearly one of these producers had paid quite a bit more for their seal – but to no avail – the 2013 Vosne was corked. Not strongly corked, but a little more than liégeux as the French would describe ‘faintly detectably corked.‘ I’d rather be talking about the wine – which for the record was a little reductive – but in this case (comparison) it was the cheaper seal that did the job…

boeuf bourguignone and lots of corky bottles…

By billn on February 24, 2020 #degustation#seals (not the furry kind)

At the beginning of February, I had a corked bottle of Castagier’s 1997 Clos de la Roche. The middle of February I had corked bottles of Vincent Dauvissat’s 1997 Chablis 1er Les Forêts and it’s not just old bottles because I also had a corked 2018 Marcel Lapierre Morgon Cuvée Lapierre MMXVIII.

This weekend I managed the double; A corked 1999 Mugnier Chambolle-Musigny and a corked 2002 Cheseaux/Ponsot Griotte-Chambertin. Anyone want to estimate the worth of all those useless bottles?

Actually, not completely worthless, the Chambolle was more ‘liegeux‘ – as the french would say for ‘lightly’ corked – I could drink a glass and a half and it was clearly the best showing for the cuvée since this wine was very young. As for the Griotte, it made a lovely sauce for our boeuf bourguignone – washed down with a delicious glass (or two) of 2019 Beaujolais Villages Nouveau – who would have thought that this would be the best way to employ these last two bottles before opening!

nomacorc?

By billn on March 26, 2019 #seals (not the furry kind)#warning - opinion!

I tasted a lot of Beaujolais Blanc last week, and I must say that I feel fortunate to have been tasting this wine from the 2017 vintage – as, all-over Burgundy, the wines are more approachable in this vintage – and for both colours – because of that I found some good ones! But a large proportion of the wines were sealed with Nomacorc and my experience of these has been truly awful – dead wines in less than 1 year kind-of awful. I understand that there may have been some improvements to the ‘current model’ but I still remain quite shocked by the level of use.

They will have to go to some extreme lengths to prove to me that wines sealed this way are something I should buy! I also note, in what seems like a stroke of marketing genius, they are changing the name of their Nomacorc website – www.nomacorc.com – to something that you could never, ever, guess:

My petite whinge du jour is now over…

damn corks!

By billn on October 27, 2018 #seals (not the furry kind)

I was looking forward to this when I got home from Burgundy last night. Unfortunately it was too oxidised to find any enjoyment – it’s now being re-purposed – marinading my beef bourguignone!
The cork did slide out rather easily – but it looked fine…

icymi – ‘tca-less cork by 2020’ – so what?

By billn on July 16, 2018 #in case you missed it#seals (not the furry kind)#the market

“An oak barrel brings value to a wine, but cork is perceived as potentially causing a problem with your wine… – …why is that?”
Antonio Amorim – yes, that Amorim!

This was published on Friday when I was traveling – it mandated comment.

My first reaction was ‘Good!
My second reaction was ‘About Time!
My third reaction was ‘But really, why has this taken so long? And, and…

The more I think about this, the more that my thoughts move from positive to negative. Of-course I am jaded by the loss of so many precious bottles – over many years – not forgetting those bottles in my cellar that are still waiting to bring me the sharp pain of aromatic disappointment.

So this is no solution for me – why? Because, aged 56, I now buy almost nothing for my cellar – it is well-enough stocked for the next 20 years of drinking – because of that, many bottles that I own – particularly in those most horrible years of non-existant quality control (for TCA) between 1996 and 2000 – I expect to lose at least 10% to cork problems – and that’s only the reds…

Cork Problems? – yes it’s plural – it’s not just TCA. There are other unwanted aromas, plus the highly variable rates of oxygen transport – as legions of dead, oxidised whites will testify – it’s not simply about TCA, which empirically (for me) now hovers at ‘only’ about 2-3% – but as stated, for a wider range of cork-related issues, the amount of lost bottles is higher than that number.

DIAM has been a solution since 2004 – a solution that is 95% cork-based – thus protecting the livelihoods of cork producers. TCA-free cork that does not sufficiently address other off-compounds, or the outright non-protection of a majority of white wine, dead in 10 years or less, will be no solution. I would be much more interested in what Antonio has to say about subjects other than TCA.

Practically, for many ‘older’ buyers – only better is no solution at all…

jj confuron 2009 nuits les fleurières

By billn on May 16, 2012 #degustation#seals (not the furry kind)

More traction for DIAM – here with the version 5 – it’s not just whites that are moving in this direction.

2009 JJ Confuron, Nuits St.Georges Les Fleurières
Medium-plus colour, some purple hues. The nose has quite some ripe depth, perhaps going lower with a hint of toastiness – it takes a while, but eventually it’s namesake makes an appearance, violet flowers… Cool and intense – that’s a great start. The tannin is slightly blocky but not really grainy. Mouth-watering flavour grows in the mid-palate before falling away. There’s a hint of 2009 on the nose but this is lithe, clean and not a bit sweet and fat like some from the vintage – it’s a bit of a ‘refresher’ of a wine. Enjoyed.
Rebuy – Yes

bruno and biothythms…

By billn on April 21, 2012 #degustation#seals (not the furry kind)

bruno-clavelier-2001-corton-rognets

Maybe it’s my biorhythms – I don’t know, but this is the third bottle out of the last four I’ve opened that is irredeemably corked – triple-ouch!!!

Burgundy Report

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