So the Sauvignon Blanc from Steenberg was not the only bottle we tried to drink the other night. I also opened a bottle of 2005 Ferrari-Carano Sauvignon Blanc. This one came in a club shipment this fall. It was $15.60, had a cork closure and was 14.2% alcohol by volume. I am absolutely convinced we had a bad bottle.
The notes on the bottle read: Clean, crisp and vibrant, this wine was made from a unique grape clone of the Sauvignon Blanc family called Sauvignon Musque. Nicely balanced, this wine displays an intense floral aroma with hints of citrus and fruit flavors. Bone dry with lively acidity, this very limited special wine underwent extremely cold fermentation to retain its varietal characteristics. Perfect with delicate dishes or as an apertif.
I will give it this much: it certainly had an intense aroma. Such an intense aroma that I kind of wanted to gag. It was a muskily sweet aroma. I would call it rotten oranges or peaches with a little applesauce thrown in. I have to admit it was hard to get it past my nose to actually taste the wine. Matt only made it through one sip before declaring it undrinkable. I got about halfway through my glass before I too had to admit defeat. In the mouth it was flat. It really tasted like slightly sweet juice, but of no distinct flavor. The color was also off. Matt poured it down the drain before I could take a picture, but the wine was a very dark yellow color in the bottle and glass. It was eventually the aroma that did me in, it was so hard to get past it. Not to mention the flat and lifeless taste in the mouth.
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Sonadora, sounds like the wine might have been exposed to some heat during shipping and possibly got oxidized.Faulty cork perhaps. I bet the Steenberg was delightful.
2/10/07, 5:09 PM
Sounds oxidized at least, and wilf is right: sounds like it went through a hot flash at some point as well. I also suspect it might have been corked, as well (rotten fruit/wet paper). Sounds dreadful.
2/10/07, 10:17 PM
Straight down the drain? I usually keep those 'special' wines a few days for cooking wine! :)
2/11/07, 12:04 AM
Hi Wilf- Thanks for the thoughts on what happened. The Steenberg was great!
Dr. Debs-I've never had a corked wine before so that very well may be partially to blame.
Joe- Yep, right down the drain. My thoughts on cooking with wine are that if I don't want to drink it, I certainly don't want to eat it!
2/11/07, 10:43 AM
You're right - should go down the drain - heartbreaking...
2/11/07, 4:08 PM
I agree with Wilf, I bet it suffered from sitting in a hot UPS truck somewhere along the road from California to Virginia. You should let FC know, even if you don't want to send it back. I wouldn't cook food with something that bad.
Barrld
2/12/07, 5:11 PM
Do you think it's worth it Barrld? The shipment must have come way back in September and every other bottle in the batch has been fine. I won't send it back, mainly because it was only $15 and we already chucked the bottle!
2/12/07, 7:06 PM
Please let FC know. July-September are the danger months. We'll actually hold shipments if the weather looks to be too hot - but we can get away with that because we are small. Also we recently hooked up with a shipping service that will box up our wine club wine and send the east coast wine on a refrigerated truck. Your note to FC could be just what they need to decide to make a change.
2/13/07, 12:13 AM