On Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 1:13:23 PM UTC+1, Emery Davis` wrote:
> CdP can be tricky, because it has (broadly speaking) 3 stages of life.
> Cornas can be like this too, sometimes.
>
> - for a few years in youth, it's vibrant fruit and tannin driven,
> delicious but without notable complexity.
>
> - in middle years, they very often "go to sleep". The fruit and tannins
> are somewhat muted and the wine may lack interest, leading people to
> think it is past its peak.
>
> - when the wine wakes up, tannins are present but mature (French say mur
> or "ripe") and there are further levels of complexity, yes tar, licorice,
> leather, but also chocolate, stone, slight bitterness of fruit pits,
> herbs, etc. In good vintages these develop for many years...
>
> Now, Grand Tinel's domaine CdP is not the most complicated CdP on the
> planet, but I suspect yours was still in stage 2, and the air helped it
> wake up a little.

Sounds like Barolo,which is why I've always had a hard time with those two types of wine. I dont have access to very mature wines (like those Dale reviews form the 70s and 80s), not even 90s are easy to find, except with some Spanish wines. So I try to find those that has some more age than the typical newest release vintage (which usually ends up in the 4-8y range here), which doesnt seem to be enough for some types. Sometimes I open it the day before for it to open. I found this helps with e.g. Quantum.


> We used to have a sort of troll here who argued vociferously and ad
> nauseum that breathing was always bad for wine, I wonder what he would
> make of your note!

I find it is almost always a beneficial practice

Oh, about the Tinel 2nd day. I got home late from work, so it only had 1h in decanter (from the vacuvin'ed bottle) while I cooked, and it was back to licorice state. My wife commented it was a good wine, but when I told the price was the same as Beringer Knights Valley, she said I should have bought that instead.