Monday, August 08, 2005

Chateau De Cruzeau 2000 (PB)

This wine form the Pessac-Leognan region of the Graves in Bordeaux is 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot. Hailing form the fabled vintage of 2000 this Grand Vin De Bordeaux is a deep purple/garnet in the glass and almost thick looking. The bouquet is yeasty at first and then changes to a rich nose of ripe fruit and blackberries.

In the mouth it is almost offensive it is so sour, harsh, steely and closed with very little flavor. This wine is borderline awful–corked? I don’t think so–just bad. We shall breathe it and see what happens.

After an hour or so there is substantial change with the bouquet being very pruny of ripe–over ripe? fruit. It is still out of balance but not offensive; just not impressive–at all! The finish is perhaps it’s best point.

We had this wine with a recipe I took out of the current Bon Appetite–the cover picture of Ancho chile and coffee rubbed filet mignon with a wild mushroom sauce. To show how underwhelmed I was with this wine, the recipe called for a cup of red wine and I used this wine in the recipe and we still have some left in the bottle.

For $20 and the vintage of a lifetime, this was immensely disappointing and yet, another adventure in the fantastic and *unpredictable world of wine!

*The Wine Spectator gives this wine a 90. I would give it an 82 and that's being generous. With this disparity there are a few possibilities going on here. Either I don't know wine--an absurd statement if I do say so; the wine is in fact mildly corked (a strong suspicion) or I have a pre-symptom infection developing in my mouth causing my taste buds to react weirdly to the wine. This has happened before. (It is kind of like drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth; there's nothing wrong with the juice; it's with your mouth.) I don't think that is what's going on here so I suspect this wine is in fact mildly corked or experienced some bad storage conditions prior to sale.

No matter; Raise a glass because we are alive in the greatest land on earth and loved by a Creator who gives such awesome gifts to the likes of us!

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:35 PM

    if you drank sour milk would you assume that all milk is bad?

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  2. Anonymous10:48 PM

    I just tried this wine, and I must disagree. It was extremely smooth with no bite whatsoever. It certainly did not strike me as a great wine, but I didn't taste any sourness. I thought it was a little too bland actually.

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