We opened yet another Chamblaise for dinner tonight, a mere 2 1/2 weeks after bottling, and I was reminded that wines undergo bottle shock within the first month after bottling. This bottle was definitely suffering from it, though it wasn’t awful — it just tastes “off” when it has bottle shock. I’m sure if we […]
Tag archive: tasting note
Our stock of my first wine kit, a Winexpert Cabernet-Merlot, is slowly dwindling. It is developing bell pepper notes, in both nose and on the tongue. Definitely entering a stage of maturity now, but only 6 more bottles left anyway.
Although this wine is pretty newly bottled, I couldn’t wait to give it a taste. We recently got a Vinturi wine aerator, so we’ve been tasting every wine with and without the vinturi treatment. This wine definitely benefited from the treatment. Without aearation, the primi has faint aroma of burnt rubber with roasted red fruits […]
The bottling binge continues!ย I finally bottled the 2009 Fallbrook Syrah, our first harvest from Live Oak Vineyard.ย We unfortunately came in short due to a heat wave just before harvest, so we have a total of 11 gallons of wine to split between the three of us.ย We will each get 18 bottles, which […]
I saved one bottle of 2009 Chamblaise to compare to the newly-bottled 2010 vintage.ย Part of the comparison was to see how much this wine changes with some aging, if at all. We tasted the 2010 Chamblaise first.ย It has rich aromas of fresh-picked pear and green apple with hint of freshly-mowed grass. Very clear, […]
The Winexpert “La Jolla Caves” red rhone blend is not quite 3 years in the bottle now. This wine has been quite a roller coaster, and this bottle is just adding to the sordid history. I’m not sure if the bottle opened is flawed, but it has a nose of port or sherry, with blackberry […]
It has been about 6 months since we broke out a Carmenere, which is over 2 years post bottling now. There are no more soapy aromas or flavors! It has big aromas of ripe red fruits, spice, and brambles. Big, bold flavors of roast cherries, plums, currants, and mild spice with hint of burnt toast […]
It’s a little early to be tasting this wine, but all of my fellow winemakers have all but demolished their stashes, so I thought I’d give it a try.ย I did not decant, but poured directly into a Riedel Bordeaux very sweet aromas, not unlike a sherry.ย Wine is not clear, but this is not […]
My in-laws are visiting from Germany, and that seemed like a good reason to check the progress of all of the vintage 2009 wines in the shower.ย I pulled 100 mL samples from various carboys for a taste. We started with the Fallbrook syrah. This wine already has great aromas with big fruit and good […]
I got an email today from Mike Hoffman that the syrah started veraison and harvest should be around the first week of September.ย Hopefully there won’t be a last-minute heat wave like last year, which raisined a lot of the grapes before we could pick them for wine. I’ll need to start thinking about what […]