DaleW wrote:

> surprised by the tannins, but those early synthetic corks had about a
> 90% mortality rate after 4 o 5 years, much less decade+
> Supposedly some are supposed to be better now, but I generally regard
> syn-corks as sign to drink with 2-3 years

My thoughts perzackly, Dale. My experience with aging wines sealed with
fake corks is "dead on arrival." In fact, one of my very early posts
to AFW was about a '96 Siduri PN that was absolutely dead when opened
in '99 or '00. I was too new to the phenomenon then to recognize it for
what it was, but I have studiously avoided aging any wines sealed under
fake cork for the last 5 years at least. Reduction be damned: bring on
the screwcaps!

Mark Lipton