So.....well over a month ago (Sept 23), I was madly preparing for my trip to Europe, and wanted something good to drink w/ my plain pasta dish. So I grabbed another btl of Mike's Carlisle CMP (Chasselas/Muscadelle/Palomino) 2013 to knock back. It's evolved wonderfully over the last 4-5 months into this fragrant stony/mineral white that reminds a lot of an AltoAdige White or a Friuli Ribolla. Drank about 2/3'rds the btl, put a stopper in it & left it on the countertop, and headed off to the airport for my 6:30 am flight to NYC.
When I finally got back last night (Oct 28) late & started to unpack, I decided I could use a glass of wine. Lo & behold, there was this 1/3'rd btl of Carlisle CMP sitting on the counter. Well...this should be interesting...it's gotta be totally shot.
Poured myself a healthy glass & took a shot at it. Say whot?? The color was perfectly correct. The nose seemed somewhat beaten down and lost a lot of its perfume, but still had some low-key mineral/stony/earthy character. On the palate (room temp), it still had a brisk acidity and some stony/earthy character. There was absolutely no signs of oxidation, in the nose or on the palate, in the wine and of being abused for over a month. No VA nor vinegar character whatsoever. Just a large loss of aromatics.
How can this possibly be?? We all "know" that air/oxygen is the enemy of wine....that a wine turns to vinegar when left exposed to air. So why did this accidental experiment fail? Why was the wine not oxidized? Did I not wait long enough?? Is it that Mike has a more magical winemaking skill than I give him credit for?? Did I do something wrong?
Curious minds would like to know? What am I missing here??
Tom