98 Chat. St. Jean SB, La Petite Etoile, Foul or Fabulous?

[Bucko]

I find from my own experience that oak is one of the biggest changes. When I very first started into the adventures of wine, I was REALLY impressed when the winery/wine shop said that the wine was aged in 100% new French oak. That had to make it good, no?

I graduated on up in price and quality of wines over the years, such as drinking Kistler Chardonnay. I thought that Kistler was the acme of winemaking. Then a savy wine friend gave me a polite nudge towards Loire wines. I was blown away by the crispness, purity of fruit, balance, and food-friendliness of these wines. All of a sudden I realized what oak-laden messes I had been drinking. My aversion to overoaking started that day and has not abated since.

IMO, there is no reason to excessively oak a wine except to try to make up for poor fruit. It is poor winemaking IMO, but then $2.50 and my opinion will get you a latte. ;-)

Bucko

[This message has been edited by Bucko (edited 03-24-2000).]