Monte Xanic bottle-shock issue?; need confirmation
We stopped at Monte Xanic to get some of the un-oaked chardonnay that Hook turned us all on to and picked up a bottle of the cab blend and the 100%
Syrah.
Had the Chard that afternoon at Jardines and saved the red for later. On our way north we drove thru Coco's to Gonzoga Bay and opened the Syrah at
Alfonsinas - it was literally undrinkable. Very musty and had a huge off flavor. No one could finish a glass and believe me, that's saying something
with this bunch. Cork appeared to be fine.
Could this have been the result of bouncing around in the back of the truck for a couple of hours on the dirt/rock road from Hiway 1 to Gonzoga?
We're hoping someone who doesn't mind risking $20 stop by the winery and buy a bottle just to see if the wine itself is bad.
The cab blend the next day was fine.
Bottle shock can happen in the conditions you describe, but it's more likely that the bottle was corked. it does not refer to the condition of the
cork but whether a chemical- in minute quantities has contaminated the wine. It can occur from use of too much chlorine used in the winery for alga
control or cleaning.
did the wine taste like wet cardboard? If so It's corked. Lots of wineries are going to other closures and New Zealand has banned corks as they are a
common contaminating agent- thus the name corked.
Santiago-- you need to expand your culinary experiences-- but you are correct it's the smell that first attacks your senses from corked wine. A
conservative estimate from producers is that up to 10% of wines have some level of corkiness. some people have much more finely attuned senses and can
discern very small amounts of TCA- the offending element- in offending wines. Maybe as low as 1 per 1,000,000. My wife is one of them and when it
shows up-- down the drain.
As an aside there was a movie a few years ago named " Bottle Shock" but it was about a blind tasting held in France in the 1970's where American wines
outscored French wines. The winner was Chateau Montelena winery from Napa- but in the decade between 2000-2010 the winery suffered from a huge
infection of TCA contamination and sold virtually no labeled wine. They went through a complete renovation and replacement of equipment and contents
of the winery to get rid of the contamination.
".....Could this have been the result of bouncing around in the back of the truck for a couple of hours on the dirt/rock road from Hiway 1 to Gonzoga?
I seriously doubt that would had an affect on your wine. Many of the BN here haul wine to their homes in The Baja without that sort of issue. Having
several ABC licenses that dealt with wine and hard spirits.....I would certainly contact the winery. I bet you had an defective cork.....
Just my two cents worth.
Old people are like the old cars, made of some tough stuff. May show a little rust, but good as gold on the inside.
Originally posted by Santiago
We stopped at Monte Xanic to get some of the un-oaked chardonnay that Hook turned us all on to and picked up a bottle of the cab blend and the 100%
Syrah.
Had the Chard that afternoon at Jardines and saved the red for later. On our way north we drove thru Coco's to Gonzoga Bay and opened the Syrah at
Alfonsinas - it was literally undrinkable. Very musty and had a huge off flavor. No one could finish a glass and believe me, that's saying something
with this bunch. Cork appeared to be fine.
Could this have been the result of bouncing around in the back of the truck for a couple of hours on the dirt/rock road from Hiway 1 to Gonzoga?
We're hoping someone who doesn't mind risking $20 stop by the winery and buy a bottle just to see if the wine itself is bad.
The cab blend the next day was fine.
[Edited on 2-21-2014 by Santiago]
i occasionally find bad bottles of wine (frequency does not make a difference if cheap or expensive),... not that rare. it just happens. open a bad
bottle, put it aside for cooking, and open another to drink right now
Just saw this. Wet cardboard, huh. Are you sure you werent drinking some of your box wine that got perforated on the road?
I picked up another bottle of the Calixa MX Chardonnay at Wally's in Guaymas. This time it is the 2012; last time it was the 2011. I hope it's just as
good. Still 210 pesos.
But..............I just got done corresponding with the sales manager of the Wine Exchange in Orange, CA. This is the single greatest retail wine
outlet in the US, IMO. That's a bit of hyperbole, of course, as I havent bought wine from all the retail outlets. The place cannot be beat on pricing,
value and the ability to get wines from sources that no one else can get. Believe it was written up in the WSJ in an article on best retail wine
sources.
Anyway, he tipped me off to what he is calling the single best deal on a Chardonnay that they have offered in the last two years. It is a SINGLE
VINEYARD, NAPA VALLEY Chardonnay for 8.99! Goes by the name of Taal or Alta, not sure which, judging by their write-up. You decide. It will go fast.
Definitely corked. Take the bottle back and you should get a free one. If not tell us and we won't go there. I do like Monte Xanics cool upstairs
tasting room!
MM: They are remodeling the whole tasting room - currently you taste at a small white house next to the road.
By the way, $190pesos for all the Calixa at the winery.
Hook: Thanks for the tip, just ordered some.
Only on two occasions, in US restaurants, have we had a a bottle of wine that went south. This is over a period of 35+ years.
The first clue was that the cork was wet more than 10%.
The waiter immediately went to the wine cellar and retrieved another bottle and it was fine.
Originally posted by Santiago
MM: They are remodeling the whole tasting room - currently you taste at a small white house next to the road.
By the way, $190pesos for all the Calixa at the winery.
Hook: Thanks for the tip, just ordered some.
Say, what??!!!! 190 pesos at the winery?
Maybe some kind of under-the-table method of avoiding the taxes? It's rare that wines are LESS expensive at a winery, unless they are blowing small
quantities of something out that they dont want to store. If they are blowing large quantities out, they will contact a distributor or even a high
volume retailer like WineEx. Of course, this is USA logic; I cant fathom what the Mexican wineries are doing except, well.................
Isn't 'Bottle Shock' the name of that movie (true story) about how California wine finally beat a French wine in 1976... staring the new Capt. Kirk
(Christopher Pine)?
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