WTN: D%$#@ Tree Bark and Good Napa Cab

At Beau's Blues Monday last night.

2005 Paradise Ridge Petit Sirah (Sonoma County). Wow. Where is the fruit? It's only a year or so old. My warm storage won't kill a big wine like this THAT quickly. Just kinda muted...some sour acidity. Revisited an hour or so later and the dread WET CARDBOARD has appeared. Strongly wet cardboard. I am not TCA sensitive, but even I can "get it" here. FAILURE

2001 Bighorn Napa Valley (Coombsville) Cabernet Sauvignon. From William Hill's boutique "retirement" project. Tasted at the "Wine Studio" (future custom crush for small rich guys ) at the southernmost end of Silverado Trail. Showed equally well tonight, with excellent structure and acidity and the green herbaceousness that with air turns into pure cassis fruit. I would still rank the 2001 Young Ridge a step or so higher, but this was very very nice. 90 points.

And the most insidious part of all this is that you first thought the wine was at fault...when it was that piece of tree bark that was the culprit.

Good you went back later and figured out it was cork taint. Anyone not doing so would be going around telling people how terrible that PS was and how the winery wasn't making very good wine.

Oh, but wait...I forgot about the all powerful romance of the cork that makes all this worth it!

[David M. Bueker]

Well thank God the wine wasn't under screw cap - it would have been horribly reductive.

Did a cellar cull last weekend and I will still take the natural cork over the synthetics anyday. Every wine under synthetic cork was oxidized. The natural cork wines held some surprises such as a non-vintange chambroucin from Pennsylvania that I know I have had for at least a decade yet was still fresh and a 1998 Topolos zinfandel that was better than when I tasted it at the winery in 2002.

Well thank God the wine wasn't under screw cap - it would have been horribly reductive.

And not complete either!

[David M. Bueker]

Brian - synthetics are a disaster. On that we can agree. If there were two choices, cork and fake cork, I would take cork every time.

Brian - synthetics are a disaster. On that we can agree. If there were two choices, cork and fake cork, I would take cork every time.

I now put the fake cork wines (of which there are several that I love) on the "drink now" rack and they never even make it down to the cellar. It just ain't worth the risk.

Mark Lipton

Have to admit that my experience of cork taint has been much below the 3-5% discussed by some here. But then, unlike other "flaws" like vanilla pudding flavoring or searing alcohol, I'm not very sensitive. Of course, there could be wines I have not enjoyed that are actually corked, but...

My fear was imperfect storage, so I was actually "relieved" to find cork taint!

Have to admit that my experience of cork taint has been much below the 3-5% discussed by some here.

Do you open a lot of screw-capped bottles. I find that greatly helps to reduce the frequency of cork taint in my apartment!

well...I did open some Olorosso Sherry last night. It wasn't corked, either!