Came home after a wonderful dinner and enjoying a bottle of Aligote and had an open (closed with Repour) bottle of a 2016 Wine Access NDA cabernet called “Editorial.” It’s a big wine - one I’ve described here as a great wine to break out as the 5th or 6th bottle at a tasting because it’s big, decently made and crowd pleasing… and it was what was open when I came home, so what the hell…
No faults on day 1 when we had about 2/3 of the bottle, and the Repour made a very assuring “thunk” when I removed it, so it seems like it had a good seal?
Either way, I’ve never had a wine smell EXACTLY like brandy before. I’ve heard of oxidation described as “nuttiness” sometimes, and I’ve certainly had wines before with fruit that smelled/tasted “stewed” or “cooked” but this was well beyond that. But the wine also doesn’t look oxidized, either. It looks like 4 year old cabernet from Napa (see photo)… Is this just an indication that it’s going to fall apart/age poorly?
Huh? Really interesting! I don’t have any experience with repour as I’m a big Coravin guy, but I hear good things about the product so I’m surprised the wine went downhill like that. Almost sounds like the repour stripped the wine of more than oxygen somehow, but i can’t see how that would be possible.
Anyone else ever have a similar experience with repour?
P.s. bummer on your wine buddy! Always the worst when you’re looking for ‘1 more glass’ and it turns out to be shot.
By day 4, I wouldn’t expect any wine to be drinkable or anything remotely suggesting what it once was. I suppose it is possible that every wine I have ever opened would have tasted this way on day 4, but every wine I have ever opened has been down my gullet or the drain LONG before then
I’ve had nothing but good experience in the past with Repour … it slides in between Coravin and just re-corking for me in my price/replacability brackets. Usually below ~$25 or so, I just cork it (and aim to drink next day), between $25 and ~$75 I Repour (and try to drink within a week), and >$75, I’ll Coravin. With Coravin, I still try to drink within weeks, not months or years, but I’ve never noticed oxidation. I just don’t want to waste a glass or two of expensive juice, and frankly sometimes with Repours or corks, I just don’t get around to wanting another glass of whatever is in there.
How you store the wine is probably better served by it’s age than price. I don’t Coravin but I do use Repour for older wines I think might be at peak or at risk of losing something over night. I reuse the cork when it’s a young wine. Especially if I’m looking for some sort of development in terms of opening.
For your wine I’m not sure about nuttiness and Brandy. Maybe you are thinking of Sherry? Cynical me wouldn’t be surprised at a big, modern CA Cab smelling like Brandy after some time being open though. They’re not exactly shooting for subtle, classic, secondary characters with those.
Nice man, I like that strategy! Bummer about your wine the other night but appreciate the good feedback on repour. I’ll scoop some up and give it a shot.
Are you saying it smelled “nutty”? Like sherry? That would sound like oxidation.
Brandy usually usually isn’t marked by oxidative scents. It has more caramel, which I assume is from vanillin and lactones from long barrel aging. I could imagine something similar in a crowd-pleasing cabernet, with a bit of oxidation and the alcohol showing because the fruit faded over four days.
It was definitely more in the caramel/brandy neighborhood … not nutty/sherry. The fruit was stewed - which I would expect from oxidation, but that brandy/caramel character was just something I’d never experienced before. I wonder if I got a bad/leaky Repour or something … but it did have the nice “thunk” sound when I removed it, so I don’t see how the seal was bad?
For me, many overdone Cali reds smell like Cognac or Bourbon already upon opening and usually those characteristics tend to get only worse after awhile, since oak tones often only grow in intensity with air. After four days it is quite possible that some of the youthful primary fruit has faded, there isn’t much or any tertiary complexity to serve as a replacement and everything that is left is just sweet, toasty oak.
So if the wine isn’t showing any Sherried qualities (i.e. oxidation), it’s most likely just oak running rampant - as John just explained, those brandy aromas are mostly just oak.
Here’s the deal - once a wine is more than 1/2 poured, it really doesn’t matter what you do - it is not going to ‘age’ beautifully from that point forth (unless it is the exception to the rule). You are fighting some serious chemical reactions - and that would be the case with Corvavins, VacuVins, or any other ‘contraption’. And that is why you should NEVER accept a BTG pour from a bottle that is that low.
