'02 Bogle Phantom

[newsguy]

i'd been wanting to try this bottling for a while and fortunately, won a bottle in a bet with my boss when my beloved redskins beat his cowboys a while back...

($17; 15.0%) the biggest component is old vines zin, plus petite sirah and old vine mourvedre. don't know exact percentages. dark purplish red. full, complex nose of cherry over dark fruits (plum, blackberry and blueberry) plus some spice, vanilla and cedar. echoed on the palate, plus a hint of chocolate on the fairly long finish. nicely balanced with big fruit, good acidity and some very fine tannins. the tannins faded fairly quickly with decanting and i found i didn't like it as much the second night after putting half a bottle away with the vacuvin. i'd drink this over the next two years. 90 points.

[Kcwhippet]

Hey, Keith!!!

"i didn't like it as much the second night after putting half a bottle away with the vacuvin"

Maybe it's because the Vacu-Vin doesn't really do what they want you to think it does. If you can get into another paper's archives, check the article by Susan Hauser in the 12 December 1988 WSJ called Testing the Vacu-Vin, or the article in the 15 December 1994 Wine Spectator by Matt Kramer titled A Giant Sucking Sound - And That's All. Basically, the consensus is that the Vacu-Vin really doesn't work as advertised. In fact, Kramer had a professor in the Chemistry Department of Portland State University drill a hole in a bottle and attach a short hose with a vacuum gauge. Then he filled the bottle 2/3 full with wine and used the Vacu-Vin. In several tests, he wasn't able to achieve a vacuum of even 70% even with 20 full pumps, which is a bit more than they recommend. According to the gauge, the bottle lost 15% of the vacuum within 90 minutes. Within 2 hours 25% of the vacuum was gone - and remember it started at less than 70% of full vacuum. Within 12 hours, the vacuum was totally gone, and this was with a brand new Vacu-Vin. They tried the test with several Vacu-Vins and the results were pretty much the same with all of them. Moral of this story? Vacu-Vin DOESN'T suck. BTW, I use the Private Preserve gas - if there's ever anything left in the bottle.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 12-10-2005).]

[RJonesUSC]

Just FYI, the blend is Petite Sirah 56%, Zinfandel 41% and Mourvèdre 3%.

[newsguy]

RJones: you are correct on those percentages. thanks. i should have just checked the winery's website first. but you would also assume that bogle would list the chief varietal first. then again, what's going to sell better, a wine whose first grape listed is zinfandel or petite sirah?

KC: i know, i know, the vacuvin isn't ideal. that is interesting research you cite. i do have some success with it, though. but that's probably because i pump it 2 to 4 times as much as they suggest. i can open a bottle after two days that still has some serious suction holding the stopper in. i know i should just switch to private preserve, but i just feel really weird about spraying something into the bottle. i know it can't *possibly* affect the wine's taste, but it still freaks me out. i just need to get over it, i guess.

[winoweenie]

Keith I can assure you that on the few times I need to put an unfinished bottle away (narmally # 2 or # 3) I have relied on the Private Preserve and it has no peer. The Vacu-Vin, as I've also stated meeny times, is absolutely worthless. Buy one of them dudes and charge it back to the paper Bubba! WW [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img]

[Kcwhippet]

Second that!!