Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Saintsbury 2001 Carneros Pinot Noir

Now the reader, from my previous postings, will understand that I dislike the effects of Brettanomyces yeast. There's no way that I'd ever be pleased placing anything that smells or tastes like manure into my mouth...

...and I'm even more displeased at finding not just one bottle, but two that were fouled by Brett (this is my check to make sure that it wasn't just a bad bottle)...

Saintsbury 2001 Carneros Pinot Noir is the offending wine. Note my use of the present tense.

I'd purchased 2 bottles and found the first bottle lacking any fruit character at all, and filthy with Brett character (well on the horsey-barnyard side, with hints of band-aids).
A friend of mine who also purchased the wine had the same experience with their bottle, and emailed me asking if I also found it "off".

We decided it wasn't worth drinking (or paying for) and contacted the winery.
Being told that we could return the bottles for replacement with another bottling of the 2001 Pinot Noir, we were for the moment quite happy - this winery was taking the wine back without any questions or hassle.

The new bottles were opened at home, and again we conferred about the Brett notes in the wine. It was certainly less offensive that the first bottles, but still lacking fruit and disappointingly tainted with Brett aromas, and certainly not worth my time...


Not recommended [5 bottles (total) opened ]

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a shame. They definitely screwed up, and I will be less likely to buy their wine from now on, though I have enjoyed it in the past.

August 25, 2004 2:57 PM  

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