Cracked into a case of Calif Italian varietals on Thurs. Pulled out two btls of Renwood Barberas. One btl had gunk all over the top and was ullaged nearly half of the wine. The other btl was ullaged slightly down onto the shoulder.
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TwoBtls
Wow....here's an opportunity to compare these two and asses the differences, an opportunity to do some BigScience.
I've had btls in the past in which half the wine had ullaged away and the wine was not all that badly compromised. So I was expecting the differences in these two btls to be not very great.
So I opened both btls (the corks came out easily w/ the AhSo and did not disintegrate, poured a glassful of each, labeled them, then randomized the two glasses and tasted them blind.
The wine was Renwood Barbera AmadorCnty (14.5%; #1155 and #1148 of 1,905 cs) 1992
And...TaDa....the results:
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Left Glass: Med.dark color w/ some browning; rather cedary/pencilly/oldRed/bit tired some ripe/blackberry/spicy/Barbera light vanilla/toasty/oak bit complex mostly tired nose; soft rather tired/dried out slight bretty rather cedary/pencilly/oldRed some toasty/vanilla/oak slight Barbera/blackberry/spicy fairly tired flavor w/ light somewhat drying/astringent tannins; med.long some ripe/blackberry/spicy/Barbera/Amador light toasty/vanilla/oak slight bretty finish w/ light bit drying tannins; in fairly decent shape for a 25 yr old Amador Barbera but clearly on its last legs; pretty much what I expected of this wine.
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Right Glass: Med.dark slightly darker color w/ some browning but not remarkably different in color; quite mousey/hantavirus rather oxidized quite tired slight Barbera/spicy quite tired/dead slight sherry/acetaldhydic nose; soft quite tired/dead bit sour slight Barbera/spicy flavor w/ light drying/astringent tannins; med.long slight bretty quite tired/dead rather oxidized/bit sherry/acetaldhydic finish w/ light astringent/drying tannins; noticibly oxidized and pretty much dead & gone; no signs of ethyl acetate/acetic acid/volatility/vinegar but slightly aldehydic.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. The differences in these two wines were dramatic. On unveiling, they were:
Left=Slightly ullaged
Right=Ullaged half away
It was clear that the ullaged half away had been compromised. The btl ullaged down below the neck not so badly compromised.
Tom