After the excitement of our inaugural battle in the Bubbledome died down around the Lab, I noticed two things. Both worth mentioning, as very wine-geeky footnotes to the big event.
1. The Ferrari Brut lied about its age. Certainly not grounds for disqualification, but when I was checking receipts, I noticed I had bought the bottle at Winebid.com, a wine auction site that I find utterly addictive. The Ferrari is NV, and the problem with non-vintage wines is that you can never really be sure where they've been, or for how long. The cork on the Ferrari had 2004TN printed on it. This could be the date the bottle was disgorged. Which would suggest this wine had some bottle age. Or, it could mean nothing at all. I went to K&L Wines in Hollywood over the weekend and I bought a new bottle. I'll add another footnote with what I find when I open the new one.
2. I googled Puzelat's Vin Pétillant and read quite a few tasting notes. Each seems to be a description of a totally different bottle of wine. There is clearly some wild fluctuations bottle to bottle. Several notes claimed the wine was undrinkable. Maybe it's something to do with the vinification. After all, the secondary fermentation upon which the méthode ancestrale depends could be construed as an intentional flaw, as secondary fermentation is a flaw when it's not intentional (huh?). Or maybe Puzelat just needs to disinfect his tank hoses. Either way, I'm pleased to note that we seemed to have gotten one of the good ones.
1 comment:
Thierry Puzelat's is a 'negociant' business. This means that the wines are made out of bought grapes. This may account for some of the unstability of a few bottlings. I have not had a Pétillant lately though.
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