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Trauma
By Peter | June 24, 2008
I decided tonight - as an addendum to the 1998 tastings - to open my solitary bottle of Rousseau’s Chambertin, thinking to add the tasting note to those already there. I know you are already ahead of me : it was corked. Interestingly corked though. On the nose I first thought “is it corked ?”. Perhaps, but there is some fine wine here anyway. The palate confirmed that it really was corked, but again that it is a fine wine underneath. Within 10 minutes the wine was overwhelmed and undrinkable. It was as though the wine, weakened by a decade of poison was still fighting for its life. I’ve never experienced this before. But I still feel inclined to search out some better bottles !
TN : Clear and bright, quite pale blood/ruby, with a touch of garnet and some bricking showing on the rim. To be honest, the colour did make me wonder whether all would be well. On first opening, the nose has magnificent intensity : freshly turned earth, rich, woody, spice and rich dark fruit. The darkness of the fruit and a sort of bitterness on the nose made me question again whether all was well. The mouth confirmed definite cork taint, but with a richly fruited, sweet and fresh wine beneath. There is real density and class to the wine, and a good long finish. Magnificent but marred - underneath is absolutely the best 1998 I’ve tasted yet. It seems that the domaine went very easy on the extraction and retained really good freshness, only to lose it all to the demon cork.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Topics: Tasting Notes |