The Tainted Love of a Wine Drinker...

Corked! It's such a shame when it happens but we've all been there. You look after something for 5 years, you protect it, you nurture it, you invest your hopes & dreams in it & then it just lets you down.

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You've been dreaming about it for years, keeping set aside and saving for a special occasion. Every time you check you wine rack for a bottle you glance at it and ponder 'is tonight the night?' but you move swiftly on leaving for another time.

Now finally the time has come. It's taken a lot of deliberation.  Is tonight suitable for such a wine? Is it an appropriate occasion to bring her out into the light of day. Decision made with 4 hours to dinner time it's time to let her breath...it would be a crime to rush a wine this good!

When you open her up the excitement is palpable, you smell it...uncertainty slowly creeps in....but surly not, it's your mind playing tricks on you.  So now it's important to taste it.

Maybe it was just the smell of cork in the neck of the bottle? So you find an appropriate glass, that ISO at the back of the cupboard is perfect! Slowly, delicately you pour out a tasting sample, things are looking up :) a nice colour, no sediment, no broken bits of cork. 

Let it rest for a minute, to settle, now the delicate swirl round the glass and a tentative sniff. Still uncertainty, you can't remember the last corked bottle you've had, it's probably just you over thinking it!? 

So you taste it, a tiny sip, then a full sip and a swirl around the mouth. Even now you reserve judgement and ask your friend to taste it.

It is at this point you try to convince yourself that it just needs time to open up, maybe it'll get better with time, it might be ok but no....a potential belter of a 2004 Amarone is shot to pieces.

Then you cry a little inside, man up and move onto plan B for tonight's dinner, namely Leoville Barton 1998.

Oh well...C'est la vie