I was culling through some wines in my cellar and came upon a couple
of bottles of 1997 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant which is Randall
Grahm's hommage to CNP. The wine was bought on release and stored at
55F. It's a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvedre although
any resemblence to CNP is purely accidental. I recall drinking the
wine on release and enjoying the California fruit flavors that
reminded my more of Village Beaujolais than CNP. The synthetic cork
was a fairly thin plasctic affair that slid out of the bottle with
ease. The cork was saturated about 50% of it's very short length with
deep pruple residue. After the initial bottle funk blew off the wine
still had a pronounced,stemmy, funky green smell that reminded my of
rotting grass clippings. In the glass the wine was a cloudy medium-
light red with a brickish cast. Flavors were of bitter grape skins
(there was a serious amount of residueclinging to all sides of the
bottle) and old apples. Clearly past it's prime the wine was still
fiercly tannic which is not something that I remembered from it's
youth. Not sure if this was a cork failure (I opened the remaining
three bottles to the same result) or if it was just not made to last.
I did taste a few hours later and again this morning and the wine
still had a bitter tanninc funk to it. NR

On Oct 28, 9:50*am, "Bi!!" > wrote:
> I was culling through some wines in my cellar and came upon a couple
> of bottles of 1997 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant which is Randall
> Grahm's hommage to CNP. *The wine was bought on release and stored at
> 55F. *It's a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Mourvedre although
> any resemblence to CNP is purely accidental. *I recall drinking the
> wine on release and enjoying the California fruit flavors that
> reminded my more of Village Beaujolais than CNP. The synthetic cork
> was a fairly thin plasctic affair that slid out of the bottle with
> ease. *The cork was saturated about 50% of it's very short length with
> deep pruple residue. *After the initial bottle funk blew off the wine
> still had a pronounced,stemmy, funky green smell that reminded my of
> rotting grass clippings. *In the glass the wine was a cloudy medium-
> light red with a brickish cast. *Flavors were of bitter grape skins
> (there was a serious amount of residueclinging to all sides of the
> bottle) and old apples. *Clearly past it's prime the wine was still
> fiercly tannic which is not something that I remembered from it's
> youth. *Not sure if this was a cork failure (I opened the remaining
> three bottles to the same result) or if it was just not made to last.
> I did taste a few hours later and again this morning and the wine
> still had a bitter tanninc funk to it. *NR

surprised by the tannins, but those early synthetic corks had about a
90% mortality rate after 4 o 5 years, much less decade+
Supposedly some are supposed to be better now, but I generally regard
syn-corks as sign to drink with 2-3 years

DaleW wrote:

> surprised by the tannins, but those early synthetic corks had about a
> 90% mortality rate after 4 o 5 years, much less decade+
> Supposedly some are supposed to be better now, but I generally regard
> syn-corks as sign to drink with 2-3 years

My thoughts perzackly, Dale. My experience with aging wines sealed with
fake corks is "dead on arrival." In fact, one of my very early posts
to AFW was about a '96 Siduri PN that was absolutely dead when opened
in '99 or '00. I was too new to the phenomenon then to recognize it for
what it was, but I have studiously avoided aging any wines sealed under
fake cork for the last 5 years at least. Reduction be damned: bring on
the screwcaps!

Mark Lipton

Mark wrote on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:56:29 -0400:

>> surprised by the tannins, but those early synthetic corks had
>> about a 90% mortality rate after 4 o 5 years, much less
>> decade+ Supposedly some are supposed to be better now, but I
>> generally regard syn-corks as sign to drink with 2-3 years

> My thoughts perzackly, Dale. My experience with aging wines
> sealed with fake corks is "dead on arrival." In fact, one of my very
> early posts to AFW was about a '96 Siduri PN that was
> absolutely dead when opened in '99 or '00. I was too new to
> the phenomenon then to recognize it for what it was, but I
> have studiously avoided aging any wines sealed under fake cork
> for the last 5 years at least. Reduction be damned: bring on the
> screwcaps!

For my education, are "synthetic" corks those ribbed plastic stoppers
(polyethylene, I think) or those apparently composed of ground up cork
bound by some sort of plastic? I don't think I've seen either lately in
the younger wines that I drink day to day, tho' neither worked very
well, IMO.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Oct 29, 10:11*am, "James Silverton" >
wrote:
> *Mark *wrote *on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 23:56:29 -0400:
>
> >> surprised by the tannins, but those early synthetic corks had
> >> about a 90% mortality rate after 4 o 5 years, much less
> >> decade+ Supposedly some are supposed to be better now, but I
> >> generally regard syn-corks as sign to drink with 2-3 years
> > My thoughts perzackly, Dale. *My experience with aging wines
> > sealed with fake corks is "dead on arrival." *In fact, one of my very
> > early posts to *AFW was about a '96 Siduri PN that was
> > absolutely dead when opened in '99 or '00. *I was too new to
> > the phenomenon then to recognize it for what it was, but I
> > have studiously avoided aging any wines sealed under fake cork
> > for the last 5 years at least. *Reduction be damned: bring on the
> > screwcaps!
>
> For my education, are "synthetic" corks those ribbed plastic stoppers
> (polyethylene, I think) or those apparently composed of ground up cork
> bound by some sort of plastic? I don't think I've seen either lately in
> the younger wines that I drink day to day, tho' neither worked very
> well, IMO.
>
> --
>
> James Silverton
> Potomac, Maryland
>
> Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

This "cork" was a somewhat soft plastic "plug" the size and shape of a
cork but the material was slightly pliable and it slid out of the
bottle with little resistance. It was actually slightly porous and
had absorbed quite a bit of color.