As part of the collaborative storage experiment with Dale Williams and David Bueker, I put away three different wines two years ago. One lot went into my passively cooled cellar, which has annual temperature excursions of 50-60°F according to my excursion thermometer; the other lot went into a cupboard in the dressing room adjacent to our bedroom on the second floor of our 115 year old home. The excursion thermometer told me that this room experienced annual temperature excursions of 60-80°F with daily swings of 10-15°F on occasion. So, the contrast in conditions wasn't terribly extreme, but was intended to simulate the storage in a less-than-conscientious retailer's store.
The first wine compared was a pair of half bottles of NV Gruet Blanc de Noirs that was chosen to highlight the anecdotal sensitivity of sparkling wine to heat damage. With a simple dinner of roast chicken, I chilled both bottles and Jean bagged them so that it was a true double-blind experiment (in that sense).
Bottle#1 we both agreed was a touch darker in color. I got a strong smell of green apples from it when it was first poured and it was moderately toasty with some baking spice flavor.
Bottle#2 gave a finer mousse when first poured but had no fruit in the nose. There were notes of mushrooms and toast in the nose, and a slightly oxidative character to the flavors with more pronounced toasty flavors.
Jean really didn't care for either wine and moved rapidly to some leftover 2008 ESJ Bone Jolly Noir for the rest of her dinner. She was of the opinion that #1 was the "upstairs" bottle whereas I believed that #2 was the upstairs bottle. In the event, it was #2 that was the upstairs bottle. The differences between the two wines were subtle at best and the darker color of #1 suggests that there may have been other issues at work, too. We shall see what the remaining two wines show us...
Mark Lipton
That '08 red is a delicious wine. Kudos!