Tried these two Zins over the weekend:
1. Sky Zin MtVeeder/NapaVlly TW 1991: Deep golden/burnished bronze color; very strongly oxidized/sherry/maderized/wet army blanket bit earthy/musty nose; dreadful oxidized/sherry/maderized bit earthy/fusty/musty flavor w/ some bitterness; short rather maderized/oxidized/sherry earthy/fusty rather biter finish; totally oxidized & shot, but no signs of TCA infection; dreadful stuff, down the drain w/o even Susan protesting "Don't...I'll drink it". $15.00
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2. Sky Zin MtVeeder/NapaVlly TW 1991: Med.dark color w/ little bricking; fairly strong blackberry/raspberry/Zin light earthy/dusty/OV rugged/Mtn Zin slight cedary/pencilly/oldZin some complex nose; lightly tart fairly bright/spicy/raspberry/blackberry/Zin some dusty/OV/earthy/mushroomy rugged/MtnZin light cedary/pencilly flavor w/ light slightly drying tannins; med.long raspberry/blackberry/Zin/blackberry cola/quite spicy some cedary/pencilly/oldZin complex finish w/ light drying tannins; lots of rugged/earthy/MtnZin character and still in amazingly good condition for a 25 yr old Zin and a pleasure to drink. $15.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. These were two identical btls from my orphan stash...stored in my garage in uncontrolled temperatures, standing upright, for over 15 yrs; both stored side-by-side in the same box. I had pulled them from the box and put them on the sideboard for ultimate "disposition" (which means...if one was decent, the other would go into the stash for Susan....if one was shot, the other would go into the stash destined for te streets of SantaFe). I finally pick them up to try. I noticed one was pale as a light rose. The other had plenty of color. I thought, in the interest of "wine science", I'd try both side-by-side. Both showed no signs of lleakage and the tops of the corks were pristine. Both had identical ullage. They looked identical, except for the differing colors.
I opened both w/ the AhSo I use on these old btls. Both corks were in the necks solidly and took some effort to remove. Comparing the two removed corks, there were no signs of a difference. Both were relatively squeezy/moist the entire length...no signs of drying out. I cut open both corks length-wise. There were no apparent differences in the interiors. Both smelled identical of sound cork.
So....for all intents & purposes....these were identical btls of wine. Yet the results of aging these wines was starkly different. Clearly the first cork had failed badly..the second had not.
No explanation on my part. Just one more data to contemplate in this mysterious subject of wine.
Tom
