I was really looking forward to this wine tonight. It was supposed to be a bit of a treat. The 2005 Clos des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape won the Wine Spectator 'wine of the year' some years back, and I was pleased to score a couple of bottles. Then this happens: corked - not massively, but enough to take the pleasure out of it entirely.
You cannot tell from the picture.
This is ironic, as I was planning to write a piece about the problems we have in the Southern Hemisphere with cork, which seems much more pronounced than in Europe. We are getting the second cut, being far away from the suppliers. I still think that a good cork is a superior closure for red wine (not white wine), and that it allows perfect ageing in a good cellar. I would also like to note that James Halliday, who fiercely argues against cork, has a non air-conditioned cellar. (I thought you wanted to know.) However, this is a big disappointment, and you don't want this to happen too often. I have not looked into this, but I find it hard to accept that quality control=chemical analysis cannot weed out the bad corks beforehand.
This is ironic, as I was planning to write a piece about the problems we have in the Southern Hemisphere with cork, which seems much more pronounced than in Europe. We are getting the second cut, being far away from the suppliers. I still think that a good cork is a superior closure for red wine (not white wine), and that it allows perfect ageing in a good cellar. I would also like to note that James Halliday, who fiercely argues against cork, has a non air-conditioned cellar. (I thought you wanted to know.) However, this is a big disappointment, and you don't want this to happen too often. I have not looked into this, but I find it hard to accept that quality control=chemical analysis cannot weed out the bad corks beforehand.
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