Upcoming Pegau Tasting

Hi,

I plan a smal Pegau vertical later this month.
Looking for advice on how to open and air in preparation.

I want to avoid the wine to be a DOA (Dead on arrival),
and on the other hand nothing will be left to check on the next day.
The wines:
Pegau Reserve 99,01, 04, Cuvee Laurence 98.

Any suggestions for drinking order?

My preference is to start with the mature wines.
i.e. 99, 01, 98 Cuvee Laurence, and 04.

Thank you for any feedback,

Eli

[David M. Bueker]

That looks like a reasonable order. None of those wines should have any issue with an advance opening, perhaps even a gentle decant if you want. I would not give them hours and hours of air, but none should be too delicate.

The '99 has a reputation for being more...umm...earthy than some vintages. I would advise taking a small sip to check that, and if it is rather bretty, move it to the end so as to not skew people's palates for the rest.

Looks like the correct order to me. My case of 1999 Res. has been gone for years and was quite drinkable or release so definitely do not open that one early. The 2001 is drinking beautifully right now as is the 1998 Res. finally. Never had the Cuvee Laurence (maybe at MoCool) . Should be a great tasting.

David, Jim,

Thanks for the comments.
The 98 and 99 where recently bought on-line in France, the 98 six months ago and the 99 last month.
The other two are from private collections here in Israel, so the cellaring conditions are not well known.
I may add a 2000, to make it a 5 bottles tasting.
Will report after.

Eli

Hi,

The tasting took place last Sunday evening at my place.
Four bottles were served not blind, each in two rounds or pouring, about 90 minutes apart.
After removing the capsules, I changed the order of the tasting.
On opening all but the 1999 were so closed, I could hardly smell anything.
I did not take detailes notes of my impressions or the comments around the table.
So here is a short (not that professional) summary.

1st flght:

Pegau Cuvee Reserve 1999

The "bad guy". In theory, for this bollte I had the least expectations. It opened up nicely after two hours.
On the second round it was much more than expected. I think for most people this was the winner of the tasting.
Go figure....

Pegau Cuvee Reserve 2000

Nice bottle. Very typical aromas. Developed nicely in the glass.

2nd flight:

Pegau Cuvee Laurence 1998

Damaged label gave me a 10% discount. Bottle was great.
Initially opened nicely after 4 hours. Nice developing aromas, some chocolate was obvious.
On the second round it seemed to fall asleep and got a bit stuck halfway
I left a little of the Cuvee Laurence 1998 in my glass until the next morning and it was still good.
I guess double decanting or one hour in a decanter could have improved our impressions of this wine.

Pegau Cuvee Reserve 2001

The cork was wet, so I decided to open it only 1 hour before we started. The cork came out too easy.
The wine however was fine, so I left it to the end - giving some time to open.

To conclude, when the bottles do not come from your own cellar and not being one of a case you owned since the release, it is so difficult to decide how and when to open.

Open too early, you have a DOA (Dead on Arrival) in the glass.
Open too late, you do not get to see the wine open to its full potenial.
The entire group of eight was happy to have four out of four prove to be good bottles.

Eli

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