Sour Note
June 14, 2010 Leave a Comment
In an attempt to free up some storage space, we opened a bottle of Bass Phillips Estate Pinot Noir 2003. Not a great wine but we knew that (JO scored 89) – picked it up cheap at a Vinum sale last year. It had gone sour – I wish the folks at Vinum had told us of the risk before flogging it at a third off. The usual solution to problems like these is to open another bottle – in this case, a Bouchard Finlayson Galpin Peak Pinot Noir 2004. Good enough but no cigar – the epitome of a great Pinot Noir (read great red Burgundy) is a firm but not overpowering tannic core around which the fruit and acidity wrap themselves. Each sip should be a slice of that structure and as the wine ages, the core breaks down, the fruit recedes and the acidity softens until an equilibrium is reached. Sadly this wine was linear – it was all there but just not all in right the places.
