WTN: 1998 Chapouter Mt. Benson Shiraz

[Jenise]

Curious about what Chapoutier might do different in the land of Oz, I picked up a bottle of this not long ago.

Wish I hadn't: an initial nose of fungus, animal fur and plastic, and on the palate berries and pine needle delivered in an unexpected wallop of acid. With time the plastic faded a little and some mushroom-loamy flavor arrived, but that's relatively unimportant because ultimately the pine turned into pickle and the acid grew fake-tasting and too annoying, even with food. We gave up after a glass. Very poor effort.

Wow! What a difference from what I tasted in this wine (Robin also reviewed it) a while back. I didn't do a tasting note but remember Robin's take on it being similar to mine. I had bought a bottle on the recco of the store owner and went back and bought him out as it was $14 for a $38 wine. I have 6 left so I'll open one tonite and see what's happening with them.

[Jenise]

I wouldn't be surprised if this wine didn't show better younger when big fruit might have masked the acidity, but I didn't detect any of what might be bottle-variation flaws except, perhaps, that initial plastic note. But whether that's there or why it's there doesn't change the wine's bigget problem, the acidity. 98's not exactly a vintage one would expect that from; I suspect it's not natural. Report back, would you?

Yuck! Tonight I got burnt rubber on the nose and it tasted like it along with kind of a medicine flavor that could be the pine needles you reported. Definitely was not a wine to last more than a couple of years. When I got in 2002 it was very nice, decent tannins (help up to grilled steak very well) and balanced acidity. I will have to cautiously go through the remaining five bottles, but make sure to a have a backup.

And a backup can be problematic too. Tonight my backup was an 01 Rocks and Gravel that was not up to par - first bad bottle out of a case. It had that prickly hint of secondary fermentation and lacked the intoxicating aromas of flowers, meat and fruit that I associate with Steve's blends. I hope this was just a bad bottle and not a portent of what's happening with the the other 9 bottles I have left.

I'm no expert on wine faults, but it sounds as if there could be a selection in here, as well as some oxidation. Sounds quite dreadful.

[Jenise]

Doug, our descriptions aren't identical, but that's a matter of degrees since our conclusions are the same: the wine is tanking. I'm especially sorry that your bottle(s) didn't turn out better than mine since you have half a dozen left.