2003 Rosenblum "Oakley Vineyards" Zinfandel

[Drew]

Was assured by Midway that the '03 was much bigger, better, rounder than the '02 which I loved and bought 2 cases of. Don't even resemble each other. This zin is much softer, almost flabby, with muted flavors of raspberry, cherry, some chocolate and spice. It did improve somewhat sitting in the glass for an hour while preparing dinner but the flavors weren't as focused as the '02. Now, truth be told, I'll use this as an experiment as this bottle accompanied us on the way to O.C. for the 150 mile trip. I've always been suspect of bottle shock, never really buying into it but will pop another after I get home and report on any/all differences. 14.5%Alc/vol $16.

Drew

[hotwine]

I've also been leary of the bottle-shock idea, but have noticed differences in a couple of recent wines that are probably attributable to that. One was the Villa Rosso Barolo and the other one of your recs, the Illuminati Riparosso, both of which I buy in small lots of 2-6 bottles each, rather than by the case. I pick both of them up when I see them, so they go into storage (and the database) at different times; since the database shows the date of purchase for a particular bottle, based on its storage location, it's easy to see which bottle was purchased most recently. Have definitely noticed that one of those consumed on the day of purchase is flatter with less vibrant fruit than one that has rested in storage for at least a week.

The constant self-inflicted blows to the forehead are giving me a flat spot there...

But how to remedy that problem for travel, as in your case? I sure don't know.

[Drew]

If I buy into the bottle shock theory the remedy for me is to "DRINK THE WINE THAT IS STORED AT THE BEACH!" We always have an assortment of 40+ wines stored there soooo choose from those and drink the newly transported wines the next time.

Drew

[winoweenie]

Will put my vote solidly on the side of bottle-shock. Long ago when I was Making 6-8 trips a year to Napa and Sonoma to pick-up mailing list wines it was extremely noticable if I opened one on return. Tom Dehlinger still puts a note saying to give the wines 2 weeks to revover. WW

[hotwine]

Sounds like Drew's got a good solution to his situation.

WW and IK have both talked about resting wines after travel.... guess it's time I started paying attention.

[hotwine]

Sumthin's been gnawin' at me since we had this exchange this morning. Dunno how many times I've ordered an old favorite bottle in a restaurant, only to have it show up at the table as a mere shadow of its real self. Wondering now if that kind of poor showing might be attributable to bottle shock, caused by the joint taking delivery of it that very same day. Not sure how we could test for that, but might be worth a bit of homework.

[winoweenie]

Absotivily no questiono im me mind that this is a real problem where the restaurant has no basic cellar. WW

[hotwine]

Only one joint we frequent has a cellar (actually a pair of temp/RH controlled quonset huts). The others have wine racks along their ###$%#@#! walls!

[Glass_A_Day]

I too had a favorite haunt with a great list. In the summer I noticed that the bottles were coming out very warm. Upon inquiring, I was told that it was because the wine was very close to the kitchen and it gets warm in the summer. The best they could offer was to put in the fridge for a bit... I go there much less now...

[Glass_A_Day]

I just tried this one last night. I agree it's nothing spectacular, but not too shabby for the $ in my opinion. Not worth buying buy case either though. I would give it an 88.