Paul, I have no problems whatsoever with your prediction that the wine will somehow enter a dumb stage, from which it will
evolve once again to exit from that muted fruit stage some years hence. That’s obviously something you are fully entitled to
draw from tasting the wine.
As I mentioned earlier I have been drinking wines for over 40 years and have yet to encounter specific characteristics from which one
could draw such a conclusion. Consequently I was hoping to learn something new, since it appeared you were comfortable making
this prediction, and I felt you must be reading or tasting something in the wine that supported that conclusion.
We may be talking in different languages here, but I can point to the 1975 Bordeaux. It was a vintage that I purchased in quantity.
Unfortunately those wines didn’t seem to want to yield - they had plenty of fruit but carried enormous tannins that rendered them
unattractive for drinking. Over the years I continued to taste these wines and found that they were not forgiving in that regard.
It got to a point where I became concerned that the fruit would not outlast the tannins. Nothing suggested early on that these
tannins would persist over the next several decades to render the wines being that tough. The wines didn’t enter a dumb stage nor
was the fruit level in the various wines suggested to diminish. Yes, a few have softened in recent years but haven’t measured up to
the wines from other vintages.The 1975’s didn’t shut down - they were never open and appealing to begin with.
Vintage 2005 in Burgundy, according to a number of critics, has entered a period of closing up, but I don’t believe any of these critics
was able to make that judgment when the wines were initially released. They must have missed reading some of the characteristics that you
found in the Kutch Pinot Noir, which forecast this shutting down. From my own cellar, I have opened quite a number of 2005 Burgundies,
but have not felt these wines had shut down as the critics indicate. The ones in my cellar don’t appear to have been hit in any major way to
a shutting down mode. Perhaps it’s a matter of degrees or tastes.
Anyway, hold your other bottle for the next 8 or 10 years and enjoy its Phoenix. Thanks for the invitation to share a bottle, but I have way
too much wine in my cellar to tackle first. As I said, my question was posed to further my education.
Hank ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}