On 10/31/12 11:16 AM, Bi!! wrote:
> I had dinner with a small group of friends last night and everybody
> was asked to bring a bottle of unknown provenence from their cellars
> to see what surprises lay in store. All of these bottles were
> purchased from auction houses such as Acker, HDH, WineCommune, etc.
> All were purchased more than 5 years ago. The reults were stunning.
>
> 1990 Meo Camuzet Clos Vougeot-good cork and ullage was great. The
> wine was cloudy and quite brickish. Tart cherry and slightly rotten
> mushrooms on the nose. Flavors were quite sharp and acidic with
> underlying sweet red fruit but quite tannic and sour. D
>
> 2000 DRC Romanee St. Vivant-Cork showed signs of being cook twice as
> the cork showed two distinct "rings" where the wine was forced up the
> neck of the bottle into the cork. Again, the wine was quite cloudy,
> brick recd in color and a very pungent nose of burnt matchstick and
> prune juice. The wine was undrinkable.
>
> 1996 Chateau Latour-Saturated cork. WIne was dark purple with
> brickish cast. Very little nose even after 1.5 hours in a decanter.
> Some cassis and lead pencil but overall it was unremarkable, tannic
> and quite empty. C-
>
> 1996 Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou-Good cork with some very slight
> penetration. The wine was quite dark with very little visable signs
> of age except for a slight pinkish note at the rim. Nose of
> blackberries, cassis and a bit of espresso and cedar. Well rounded on
> the palate, soft resoved tannins, saturated with black fruits and
> tobacco notes. Years of life ahead. A-
>
> Not scientific by any stretch of the imagination but does make you
> say...hmmmmmm. Mine was the Ducru.
>
Egads, Bill!
I've been a customer of HDH auctions since they started up in 2004.
During that time, I've won maybe 8-9 lots of wine and have yet to
encounter a heat-damaged bottle (corked wines, OTOH, I have). I have
no firsthand experience with Acker but WineCommune has the rep for not
vetting their lots nearly as well as a traditional auction house (HDH
e.g. puts a very high emphasis on provenance and cellar conditions -- I
doubt that I could get them to auction off any wines from my passively
cooled, below-grade cellar).
Sorry to hear about your experiences, but I'm glad for you that your
bottle at least turned out to be fine. Those other wines are enough to
make a winegeek cry.
Mark Lipton
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