WTN: A Chenin and two Bordeaux

• 2006 Bellingham Chenin Blanc The Maverick - South Africa, Coastal Region (9/29/2007)
  Gold. The nose is so full of bitter oak tones that nothing else is noticable. On the palate, this theme continues, yet it does have nice acidity and a sweet and medium length finish. There is no sense of grape or place in this.
• 1988 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac (10/1/2007)
  Label
  
  My last bottle sacrificed tonight. The first glass smelled just lovely: pencil, lavender, ripe and beautifully aged fruit, earth. The palate was a bit hollow (first warning sign I suppose) but had lovely structure. Just the scent alone made me swoon....
  
  Until I poured us our second glasses when there was a tiny hint of damp cardboard. Almost everything I have recently opened at home with dinner has turned out corked: my last two bottles of Edmunds St. John's Les Côtes Sauvages 1996, my last bottle of Joguet's Chinon Clos du Chêne Vert 1997 and now this!
  
  These haven't been the ways I would have wanted to end these relationships with much loved wines. I guess since these are some of the few wines that I have bothered to buy more than one bottle of, the likelihood that I'll come across a corked bottle or two is greater than when I buy just one. But why, oh why did it have to be my last bottles of these that had to be corked? On the bright side, this did show for one glass what I have so much loved about this wine.
• 2001 Château Belgrave - France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Haut-Médoc (9/29/2007)
  Crooked label
  
  Dark colour. The nose is lovely: cassis, damp earth/vegetation, quite dark toned fruit, slight bell pepper. The palate is also lovely for me: savoury, a little bit green (but not as in under-ripe for my taste, but more in the herbal direction that Bx should IMO have) yet with perfectly enough fruit for my tastes. This is very refreshing and begs me to take another sip. There is oak noticable, but it seems to be integrating well and didn't bother me even though I admit to being rather oakophobic.

Posted from CellarTracker

Almost everything I have recently opened at home with dinner has turned out corked

Clearly you should start eating out more often

You need a class in statistics, Otto....

Not sure why you think if you just bring home one bottle of a particular wine, less likely to be corked. Just think... of all those wines you loved, what if you had had only one bottle and each was corked.... after all, you are drawing from a random batch of wines..... a whole case could be corked....ten cases opened could be not corked...etc., it's all a random walk...unless of course the winery has a special problem and bacteria is a general problem....then any and all bottles could be a candidate for corkiness.

Start buying screwtop wines if you really want to see an end to corked wines... of course, other problems might arise....

Ooooh! We are being pedantic aren't we Jim! You're taking away all my therapeutic complaining with reasoning. Harumph.

Vive le screwcap!

-O-