Preface:
The bottles I selected were stored in 3 separate conditions for 2 years and 14 days.
1 bottle of each wine was kept in my climate controlled cellar with temperature variation from about 54-57 degrees Fahrenheit.
1 bottle of each wine was stored in my basement but outside of the wine cellar with slow seasonal temperature variation from 54 degrees to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
1 bottle of each wine was stored in an upstairs closet in the living section of our house with seasonal temperature variation from 58 degrees (winter) to about 74 degrees (summer) with occasional spikes to 80 degrees during the July/August timeframe. Daily temps in the May-September timeframe can vary from the low 60s to nearly 80.
The wines were served blind, with nobody knowing which bottle was which (not even me).
Warm up wine:
2008 Wind Gap Trousseau Gris
Crisp, light fruit is a positive but there’s not much there. It’s somewhat bland, and no particular element of the wine makes any kind of lasting impression. It’s probably ok as an alcohol delivery system, but no better than that.
First flight: 2005 Domaine de la Pépière (Marc Ollivier) Muscadet de Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie Vieilles Vignes Clos des Briords
Bottle 1: Very bright & fresh – good saline minerality & fruit. Excellent.
Bottle 2: Slightly rounder than bottle 1. Shows more evolved fruit, but the same fine minerals
Bottle 3: Mute on the nose. Softer mouth feel than bottle 1 or 2. Lack of freshness but would still be quite good if not compared to the prior bottles.
Consensus favorite was bottle 1 which was stored in the basement (not the wine cellar). Consensus pick for most evolved was bottle 3 which was from the upstairs closet. Everyone really liked bottles 1 and 2 and most folks liked #3.
Second flight: 2006 Gysler Weinheimer Riesling Kabinett (Rheinhessen)
Bottle 1: Petrol, but bright fruit blasts through it. Long finish of sweet peach fruit. Very good.
Bottle 2: Quite similar to the first bottle but not quite as forward.
Bottle 3: Closed. A little bitter on the finish. Swirling made a difference, but this never came out to play.
Consensus favorite was bottle 1 which was from the upstairs closet!
Consensus pick for most evolved was bottle 3 which was from the wine cellar!
Well this was an unexpected result. When wine 1 was so bright and fresh I really expected that to be the bottle from the wine cellar. I am at a loss to explain this one. Perhaps the cellared bottle has closed down while the bottles exposed to more temperature variation have not? This was a weird outcome to say the least.
Third flight: 2005 Faiveley Mercurey La Framboisière
Bottle 1: Rather acidic, tart red fruit with a slight herbal component.
Bottle 2: Virtually indistinguishable from bottle 1
Bottle 3: Showing more on the nose, but not sure everything that’s there is good (brett?). Rather bitter on the finish.
Bottles 1 and 2 pretty much split the field for favorite, and they were from the basement and wine cellar.
Bottle 3 was consensus pick for most evolved and was from the upstairs closet.
I should note that the Faiveley was much more enjoyable with some of the grilled sausages. They tamed the acidity. I did not enjoy drinking the wine on its own from any bottle.
Conclusions
I would call these rather inconclusive results. Of course I am now much less worried about short term cellaring in the basement, but would likely still shy away from the upstairs closet.
None of the wines were clearly damaged, and there was virtually no color difference on any of them. The dominant discussion was whether the upstairs closet really had enough extremes in temperature to do much to a wine. As has been mentioned in earlier threads this may have been too short a time period. I think I will put some more bottles (different wines) aside for a longer period (5 years) to see if that makes any more meaningful difference.
Bonus Pours
2008 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir (Anderson Valley)
Served blind as well, I guessed what it was due to clues I had been given earlier. Red fruit and bacon/smoke on the nose. Very silky and fruity on the palate with a lingering smokiness on the finish. This is clearly unusual but it was so darned delicious. Everyone liked it, despite the undeniable fact that it is marked by smoke from the 2008 fires.
1999 Domaine Auguste Clape Cornas Renaissance
(cue Steve Howe) Funky, meaty and tasty. This is fairly high acid, but has the stuffing to back it up. Not everyone was a fan of the funkiness or the acidity though. I have some of the regular Cornas and that will sleep for a long while yet.
1999 Tardieu-Laurent Cornas Vieilles Vignes
Richer and much more forward than the Clape (cue Steve Howe). This is quite sweet in its fruit and doesn’t have the pronounced meatiness of the prior wine. I like it as a very fun bottle, but it does not seem so Cornas to me. It’s too polished.
