MGS Red Blend: Dark cherry red color; lifted, baked cherry, baked berry, spice nose; tart red berry, baked cherry, tart grenadine syrup palate with good acidity; medium-plus finish.
Grenache Reserve: This wine has lots of red fruits, a spicy finish, and a big mid-palate. It is a great pairing with salmon, Italian foods, salami, and cheese.
Winery: Core Winery
Founder: Dave and Becky Corey
Founded: 2001
Location: Santa Maria, CA
The core of every wine begins in the vineyard.
Dave Corey’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Biology from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in Entomology and Plant Physiology from Kansas State University, which was completed in 1995. Prior to entering the wine industry in 1996, Dave worked in Salinas and the Central Valley in agricultural fields including cole crops, cotton, almonds, citrus, walnuts, kiwi, table grapes, apples and stone fruit. His first position in the wine industry was as a Pest Control Advisor with Cambria Winery and Vineyards and later at Kendall-Jackson Vineyards of Santa Barbara County.
Dave left Kendall Jackson Vineyards in 1999 to begin Vital Vines, a viticultural company providing technical support for vineyard property owners, vineyard managers and winemaking personnel in the promotion of sustainable agriculture. He has worked with clients that include Laetitia, Barnwood, Beckman, Melville, Stolpman, Gainey, Zaca Mesa, Sea Smoke, Le Bon Climat, Sine Qua Non, Rideau, Carhartt, Rusack, Westerly, Fiddlestix, Vogelzang, Andrew Murray, Evergreen, Arita Hills and Royal Oaks.
With a major commitment and a second mortgage, Dave gradually decreased his vineyard consulting work to focus on vineyard sourcing, winemaking duties and winery direct sales for CORE wine company which he started in 2001 with his wife, Becky. Dave passionately continues working in the same capacity today in addition to several new wine projects with family members. He can also be found pouring wine for customers at the CORE wine company tasting room in Old Orcutt, California
Videos
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Is it safe to assume that we would be getting 2 of each in a 4-pack and 6 of each in a 12-pack? I don’t see that specified anywhere but maybe I’m just missing it…
Lab Rat reporting in. First time ratting in 9 years of ordering and I couldn’t be more excited.
Working with a bottle of the grenache reserve.
Core wine logo printed on the top of an uncovered cork, making this easy to pick out of the cellar if it needed to lay down for a bit.
Initial pour shows rust or mulberry, definitely on the darker or ruddier side of what I would have expected. Legs run long and the first thing I pick up on the nose is lots of heat. First sips had some heavy acidity on the back of the palate so letting it sit.
Returning to this guy about a half hour later, more bright red berry comes through on the nose. The fruit holds up on first taste, and is supported with dry baking spices, maybe even cinnamon (more texture than taste, but my mouth is a little confused) on the tail of a dry mouth feel and light finish. There’s still some heat at the back of the throat, but at almost 15% its hidden very well.
On night one, paired with a tuna steak with a good amount of asian heat. The wine held up well to the spice but definitely would have done better with something a little fattier.
Coming back on day 2, poured into my new stemless casemates glass! This bottle has softened out significantly. The acidity still coming on a little, but now the fruits take most of the spotlight. It has kind of a lambic quality, very juicy on the front with a tinge of tartness left over after swallowing. The strong and bright red fruit that was there yesterday has darkened a bit leading to a much smoother overall experience. I’m not usually an unblended grenache fan but this is definitely drinkable, especially on day 2. Going in for an order, admittedly partly to commemorate the lab rat experience. Thanks for the opportunity!
This is the sort of offer I’d like to see more of on casemates, except for one thing. The wines certainly sound interesting-- reds, in the right price range, varieties I like. But like a couple of previous offers that looked interesting at first, it’s not available to Illinois customers. So no sale.
We were very pleased to get an email Tuesday evening telling us that we’d been selected to LabRat an upcoming offering, our first such experience! A quick incantation on the Fedex website let us safely divert the package to a Fedex OnSite location for pickup after work Wednesday. When we both got home, we tried the wine with a quick pop and pour at room temperature since we are used to most reds at our mid-70s F temperature. What follows are the impressions of two long-time beer judges as we (the S and the D in sndg) tried this offering.
Appearance: dark cherry red. A little hazy; not quite clear. Dark pink meniscus. Long, lingering legs.
Aroma: immediately after opening, hot alcohol and black cherries. An hour after opening, some blackberry and currant notes in addition to the cherry. The hot alcohol has faded, but still present.
Mouthfeel: medium body, a bright acidity, alcohol warmth mid palate into the finish. No appreciable tannins.
Flavor: very dark cherry forward and jammy on opening. Blackberries and currant became apparent after being open for an hour or so. A slight herbal flavor of tarragon. Finish is dry with jammy fruit and alcohol lingering for a minute or so.
Pairing: the jamminess went well with some tacos made of sautéed onions, fresh poblano chilies from the garden, and chicken breast, bringing out the fruitiness of the chilies.
The next day, chilled to 60F and having had the cork shoved back in the bottle the previous night, still a lot of dark cherry on the nose, but (as expected with the temperature drop) less of the hot alcohol and now a bit of leather and spice (cinnamon?). Flavor has smoothed out a bit, but still very fruit forward; the interesting herbal note isn’t as noticeable.
Overall: a nice weeknight drink. More approachable chilled a bit. We’ve been on a SIWBM since we made many purchases at the end of 2017 and since we inventoried everything on CellarTracker and found out just how much wine we have in the house. We’ll decide this weekend whether we’ll break our WBM to commemorate our first Rat experience…
Former WWter just found this site yesterday. I’m all out of Mourvedres and Garnachas here but the high alcohol is making me wait for a better match. In my experience “14.9%” on the label really means 15% or higher on the tongue.
@corewine large collection of wine or large collection of vinyl haha? Probably both. That’s really cool, I’ll come and sit in your tasting room anytime.
Great to see Core on here. I was first introduced to them at a Family Winemakers tasting event down at a racetrack near San Diego. I like Dave’s winemaking style although I’d be hard pressed to tell you why so quit putting me on the spot! I like what I’m seeing from the Ratters.
@corewine@javadrinker@rjquillin do they still have that event? I’m always leery of going to “mega wine” tasting days, so a show just for small wineries sounds great.
First pour, the color is what I would call an old-fashioned maroon – reddish-brown all the way through. Leggy, the wine stayed on the sides of the glass for over 2 minutes.
Nose – 1st though was this reminds me of the smell of a new port (not the sweet part); slightly oxidized; a little bit of spice; a hint of floral at the end. After 20 minutes, more balanced aroma – ripe and dried fruit (again, not the sweet part of those smells); not a complex aroma.
1st taste – chalky, oxidation, fruit, a little leather and pepper. After another ½ hour, a different wine.
1/12 hour later, Less oxidation in aroma and taste; still chalky, but less so; rounder, dried and ripe fruit, very slight floral note. Harsh first taste, nice mid-palate, short finish.
After 1.5 hours, still a “mature” taste, more fruity and jammy (no sweetness at all).
The color is on the far end of a typical Grenache – lighter in color and a brownish tint. The high alcohol content is not evident on the palate.
I tasted it with flank steak and cheese, crackers and salami. Better with the cheese and crackers. I suspect this might be good with some sea foods.
2nd night
The nose is the same – oxidized, peppery in a good way, hint of floral. The taste is similar to end of 1st night - chalky and jammy. Better with food; cuts the chalkiness and smooths out the wine.
@XsanityX Thanks for the lab rat report. I’m a little new to high quality wines. I’m a grocery store wine purchaser before Casemates. I’m a little confused by your description of this wine as “chalky”. That brings to mind “pepto bismal” chalkiness, which I’m sure you don’t mean. Could you elaborate a little more on what you mean by “chalky”? Thank you.
@mehnyblooms
chalky, acidity, tartness, bitterness and hot alcohol are 5 different sensations and/or tastes that are often confused. I’m not a scientist so look these up to get an idea of the difference between each one.
Chalkiness to me is a distinct dryness that makes the wine stop on your tongue before continuing on its way in your mouth. It does not have a flavor; it is a mouthfeel. This wine does not have a hotness to it though the alcohol content is on the high side; it does not burn the nose or mouth or feel hot going down.
@jchasma I saved the picture a long time ago. If I were to rat, I would put in an image insert and follow the rest with my review. Others may be doing that too or it could be casemates support.
@jchasma@rjquillin@TechnoViking You don’t need to go back to WW, it’s right up above. With Chrome at least. I just right-clicked on the image and got the option to “save image as”. So I think I have a usable copy of the image. Let’s see.
I am in! First Casemate . Looking forward to visiting your tasting room in the future. My father-in-Law lives 5 miles away and dines weekly at Uliveto, a fantastic Italian restaurant just steps away from your tasting room. Now I have another reason to visit the in-laws!
@corewine Guess I won’t be able to try these, Dave. The shipment was damaged by FedEx and they are rerouting it back. I was told they don’t have inventory to reship. Maybe next time
@CObrent@livechild Foil serves no purpose anymore. I prefer that I can see the entire neck of the bottle. It certainly has nothing to do with TCA and a wine being corked.
@kaolis@livechild In my case (half case, actually), it was probably the freezing weather, but I’m still a traditionalist with foil. But it’s not a game-changer…OK with whatever…just like the look of the foil.
@CObrent Not trying to be a pain, but cold weather also has nothing to do with a bottle being corked. Not saying you didn’t have any corked bottles, but just pointing out cold weather (can I assume you mean it was cold out during shipping?) does not have anything to do with it.
@CObrent@kaolis I can’t see how foil could hurt. Plus, it’s a traditional touch of class that I feel we should keep going. It’s part of the ritual of opening a bottle.
The presentation is completely off without the foil. It just looks lazy without it. Unbalanced. Unsanitary. Sorry, but that’s my feeling on the subject. There should be something covering the cork. Otherwise, throw a twist cap on it and be done with it.
@CObrent a “corked” wine has nothing to do with the condition of the cork, leakage of the cork, whether the cork is showing signs of seepage. Corked wine is a term for a wine that has become contaminated with cork taint. Cork taint is not simply the taste of a cork. Rather it is caused by the presence of a chemical compound called TCA (2,4,6 - trichloroanisole). The flavor of the wine is similar to wet cardboard or wet newspaper etc.
The fact there is some wine up the side of the cork is totally different from a wine being “corked”. Generally not a concern. Now there could be some other issues of course.
Sounds like you have drunk all six bottles. Did the three with a little wine up the side taste off/bad to you?
@CObrent not being able to edit is a pain. Was just going to add if it was indeed really freezing weather when your was shipped it could push some wine up. Were the corks pushed up at all?
But still different than the wine being corked as in taste/cork contamination.
@kaolis No, the corks weren’t pushed up, but felt looser than others I have pulled (I’m pretty new to drinking wine, still figuring things out, like what to call the condition of the bottles I got in December!). These were Pinot Noir…the first had a stained cork, but my family and I drank it and all of us agreed it wasn’t good - tasted sour to me, but since this was literally my first PN I didn’t know what to expect. The non-stained bottles were all fine, but the second stained cork bottle I opened also tasted “off” to me, again sour. Only sipped it then poured out the rest (along with the entire third bottle with the stain). So, it may be that what I am calling sour is the cork, or could be another issue. Turned me off of PN for now, though - I will circle back someday!
Hi Dave. Can you comment on the high alcohol and some heat on both bottles per labrat reports? Ive had your wines before (bought the 4 pack when yiu were on wine woot many moons ago) and enjoy your style but the heat is a bit up there IMO. My palate has evolved a bit since I last visited your tasting room three years ago…
Tasting Notes
MGS Red Blend: Dark cherry red color; lifted, baked cherry, baked berry, spice nose; tart red berry, baked cherry, tart grenadine syrup palate with good acidity; medium-plus finish.
Grenache Reserve: This wine has lots of red fruits, a spicy finish, and a big mid-palate. It is a great pairing with salmon, Italian foods, salami, and cheese.
Specifications
Price Comparison
$292.80/case at Core Winery (including shipping)
About The Winery
Winery: Core Winery
Founder: Dave and Becky Corey
Founded: 2001
Location: Santa Maria, CA
The core of every wine begins in the vineyard.
Dave Corey’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in Biology from San Jose State University and a master’s degree in Entomology and Plant Physiology from Kansas State University, which was completed in 1995. Prior to entering the wine industry in 1996, Dave worked in Salinas and the Central Valley in agricultural fields including cole crops, cotton, almonds, citrus, walnuts, kiwi, table grapes, apples and stone fruit. His first position in the wine industry was as a Pest Control Advisor with Cambria Winery and Vineyards and later at Kendall-Jackson Vineyards of Santa Barbara County.
Dave left Kendall Jackson Vineyards in 1999 to begin Vital Vines, a viticultural company providing technical support for vineyard property owners, vineyard managers and winemaking personnel in the promotion of sustainable agriculture. He has worked with clients that include Laetitia, Barnwood, Beckman, Melville, Stolpman, Gainey, Zaca Mesa, Sea Smoke, Le Bon Climat, Sine Qua Non, Rideau, Carhartt, Rusack, Westerly, Fiddlestix, Vogelzang, Andrew Murray, Evergreen, Arita Hills and Royal Oaks.
With a major commitment and a second mortgage, Dave gradually decreased his vineyard consulting work to focus on vineyard sourcing, winemaking duties and winery direct sales for CORE wine company which he started in 2001 with his wife, Becky. Dave passionately continues working in the same capacity today in addition to several new wine projects with family members. He can also be found pouring wine for customers at the CORE wine company tasting room in Old Orcutt, California
Videos
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Friday, March 16th - Tuesday, March 20th
@jalopatin brings us their first ever LabRat Report!
@sndg has some detailed tasting notes for us.
Dave from @corewine is here to answer questions.
(Check out their User Profile for recent activity.)
CORE Mixed Reds
4 bottles for $54.99 $13.75/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $134.99 $11.25/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2009 Core MGS
2012 Core Grenache Reserve (Old CT here)
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
CORE Mixed Reds - $30 = 18.18%
Is it safe to assume that we would be getting 2 of each in a 4-pack and 6 of each in a 12-pack? I don’t see that specified anywhere but maybe I’m just missing it…
@chipgreen that’s usually been the case for previous mixed batches
@chipgreen confirmed upon checkout the image changes to show the split
@chipgreen thanks for checking out my wines.
No MD wallet gets a break
Lab Rat reporting in. First time ratting in 9 years of ordering and I couldn’t be more excited.
Working with a bottle of the grenache reserve.
Core wine logo printed on the top of an uncovered cork, making this easy to pick out of the cellar if it needed to lay down for a bit.
Initial pour shows rust or mulberry, definitely on the darker or ruddier side of what I would have expected. Legs run long and the first thing I pick up on the nose is lots of heat. First sips had some heavy acidity on the back of the palate so letting it sit.
Returning to this guy about a half hour later, more bright red berry comes through on the nose. The fruit holds up on first taste, and is supported with dry baking spices, maybe even cinnamon (more texture than taste, but my mouth is a little confused) on the tail of a dry mouth feel and light finish. There’s still some heat at the back of the throat, but at almost 15% its hidden very well.
On night one, paired with a tuna steak with a good amount of asian heat. The wine held up well to the spice but definitely would have done better with something a little fattier.
Coming back on day 2, poured into my new stemless casemates glass! This bottle has softened out significantly. The acidity still coming on a little, but now the fruits take most of the spotlight. It has kind of a lambic quality, very juicy on the front with a tinge of tartness left over after swallowing. The strong and bright red fruit that was there yesterday has darkened a bit leading to a much smoother overall experience. I’m not usually an unblended grenache fan but this is definitely drinkable, especially on day 2. Going in for an order, admittedly partly to commemorate the lab rat experience. Thanks for the opportunity!
@jalopatin thank you very much for the review! I prefer making my blends, but this was a good one to offer this time.
This is the sort of offer I’d like to see more of on casemates, except for one thing. The wines certainly sound interesting-- reds, in the right price range, varieties I like. But like a couple of previous offers that looked interesting at first, it’s not available to Illinois customers. So no sale.
@DickL I knew from previous offers this wasn’t coming to IL, but hey, let’s say it together…on three, one, two, three “What no Illinois?”
@DickL We’re working on getting our Illinois license again.
@corewine @DickL Illinois is a really challenging state these days . . .
LabRat Report for the MGS Red Blend
We were very pleased to get an email Tuesday evening telling us that we’d been selected to LabRat an upcoming offering, our first such experience! A quick incantation on the Fedex website let us safely divert the package to a Fedex OnSite location for pickup after work Wednesday. When we both got home, we tried the wine with a quick pop and pour at room temperature since we are used to most reds at our mid-70s F temperature. What follows are the impressions of two long-time beer judges as we (the S and the D in sndg) tried this offering.
Appearance: dark cherry red. A little hazy; not quite clear. Dark pink meniscus. Long, lingering legs.
Aroma: immediately after opening, hot alcohol and black cherries. An hour after opening, some blackberry and currant notes in addition to the cherry. The hot alcohol has faded, but still present.
Mouthfeel: medium body, a bright acidity, alcohol warmth mid palate into the finish. No appreciable tannins.
Flavor: very dark cherry forward and jammy on opening. Blackberries and currant became apparent after being open for an hour or so. A slight herbal flavor of tarragon. Finish is dry with jammy fruit and alcohol lingering for a minute or so.
Pairing: the jamminess went well with some tacos made of sautéed onions, fresh poblano chilies from the garden, and chicken breast, bringing out the fruitiness of the chilies.
The next day, chilled to 60F and having had the cork shoved back in the bottle the previous night, still a lot of dark cherry on the nose, but (as expected with the temperature drop) less of the hot alcohol and now a bit of leather and spice (cinnamon?). Flavor has smoothed out a bit, but still very fruit forward; the interesting herbal note isn’t as noticeable.
Overall: a nice weeknight drink. More approachable chilled a bit. We’ve been on a SIWBM since we made many purchases at the end of 2017 and since we inventoried everything on CellarTracker and found out just how much wine we have in the house. We’ll decide this weekend whether we’ll break our WBM to commemorate our first Rat experience…
@sndg thank you very much for the notes. I made these wines to show better the next day if possible. We priced as a great everyday drinking wine.
Former WWter just found this site yesterday. I’m all out of Mourvedres and Garnachas here but the high alcohol is making me wait for a better match. In my experience “14.9%” on the label really means 15% or higher on the tongue.
@billmort I think you’ll find them interesting. Hopefully you’ll give tham a shot. May see some of my Mourvedre’s that I farmed coming soon.
Dave Corey here with CORE winery. I made these wines and super excited about working with Casemates…
@corewine Hey Dave, how’s it going? It has been a while since we crossed paths. Looking forward to enjoying these wines.
How is everyone this afternoon?
@corewine Still have power, so that’s good! Anyone from Connecticut want to split a case?
@markgm keep safe!
we’re opening up these wines tonight at our tasting room. We have a food truck coming tonight and spinning a little vinyl.
@corewine I like your style.
@corewine you should post you favorite food truck and varietal pairings.
@corewine What type of turntable do you have? Love my old Thorens, I play records all the time.
@scott0210 Harman-Kardan or itls it the other way around. Got it on Amazon prime. Been super popular in tasting room with our large collection.
@corewine large collection of wine or large collection of vinyl haha? Probably both. That’s really cool, I’ll come and sit in your tasting room anytime.
Great to see Core on here. I was first introduced to them at a Family Winemakers tasting event down at a racetrack near San Diego. I like Dave’s winemaking style although I’d be hard pressed to tell you why so quit putting me on the spot! I like what I’m seeing from the Ratters.
@javadrinker great to back on with you guys
@corewine @javadrinker That would have been at the
Del Mar fairgrounds. First met Scott and Jana Harvey there as well.
@corewine @javadrinker @rjquillin do they still have that event? I’m always leery of going to “mega wine” tasting days, so a show just for small wineries sounds great.
@javadrinker @rjquillin i thought it was a good event. Better when they it in Pasadena on day 2.
@javadrinker @radiolysis @rjquillin for larger tastings it was my favirite to pour at
I’m a rat!
First pour, the color is what I would call an old-fashioned maroon – reddish-brown all the way through. Leggy, the wine stayed on the sides of the glass for over 2 minutes.
Nose – 1st though was this reminds me of the smell of a new port (not the sweet part); slightly oxidized; a little bit of spice; a hint of floral at the end. After 20 minutes, more balanced aroma – ripe and dried fruit (again, not the sweet part of those smells); not a complex aroma.
1st taste – chalky, oxidation, fruit, a little leather and pepper. After another ½ hour, a different wine.
1/12 hour later, Less oxidation in aroma and taste; still chalky, but less so; rounder, dried and ripe fruit, very slight floral note. Harsh first taste, nice mid-palate, short finish.
After 1.5 hours, still a “mature” taste, more fruity and jammy (no sweetness at all).
The color is on the far end of a typical Grenache – lighter in color and a brownish tint. The high alcohol content is not evident on the palate.
I tasted it with flank steak and cheese, crackers and salami. Better with the cheese and crackers. I suspect this might be good with some sea foods.
2nd night
The nose is the same – oxidized, peppery in a good way, hint of floral. The taste is similar to end of 1st night - chalky and jammy. Better with food; cuts the chalkiness and smooths out the wine.
Thx for the wine!
@XsanityX thanks for taking the time to put in a thorough and thoughtful review.
@XsanityX
@XsanityX Thanks for the lab rat report. I’m a little new to high quality wines. I’m a grocery store wine purchaser before Casemates. I’m a little confused by your description of this wine as “chalky”. That brings to mind “pepto bismal” chalkiness, which I’m sure you don’t mean. Could you elaborate a little more on what you mean by “chalky”? Thank you.
@mehnyblooms
chalky, acidity, tartness, bitterness and hot alcohol are 5 different sensations and/or tastes that are often confused. I’m not a scientist so look these up to get an idea of the difference between each one.
Chalkiness to me is a distinct dryness that makes the wine stop on your tongue before continuing on its way in your mouth. It does not have a flavor; it is a mouthfeel. This wine does not have a hotness to it though the alcohol content is on the high side; it does not burn the nose or mouth or feel hot going down.
@XsanityX Thank you. That explanation is helpful.
@XsanityX
Well, forgot to mention in my lab rat notes that I tasted the 2012 Grenache Reserve.
For the future, how do I post the lab rat picture?
@jchasma I saved the picture a long time ago. If I were to rat, I would put in an image insert and follow the rest with my review. Others may be doing that too or it could be casemates support.
@jchasma @TechnoViking I too saved a copy form ww, but I think the mods have been assisting when they link from the start of the thread.
go back to ww grab and save the image
@jchasma @rjquillin @TechnoViking You don’t need to go back to WW, it’s right up above. With Chrome at least. I just right-clicked on the image and got the option to “save image as”. So I think I have a usable copy of the image. Let’s see.
That’ll do nicely!
I may not get back to quickly tomorrow. Have to drive to Westlake Village for an 80 mile ride and wine sponsorship following.
I am in! First Casemate . Looking forward to visiting your tasting room in the future. My father-in-Law lives 5 miles away and dines weekly at Uliveto, a fantastic Italian restaurant just steps away from your tasting room. Now I have another reason to visit the in-laws!
@Thunderbums give me a shout at 805-714-5057 when you’re in the area.
Did something change with shipping to Illinois? I’ve never had an issue before,
@mike60510 You’ve never ordered from this winery before, I’m guessing. If the winery doesn’t have a license to ship to IL, you’re out of luck.
Hello everyone!
@corewine Greetings Dave. Looking forward to opening these wines.
@cbbrown3 look forward to see what you think.
@corewine Guess I won’t be able to try these, Dave. The shipment was damaged by FedEx and they are rerouting it back. I was told they don’t have inventory to reship. Maybe next time
I would like to get this, but is FedEx the only option? FedEx service is terrible here and I don’t want to use them anymore.
@Rstoker how so?
Am I the only one absolutely hating the fact that there is no foil over the cork???
@livechild prefer it that way here
@livechild The only time I’ve bought wine with no foil (Harvest Moon Pinot Noir), 3 of the 6 bottles were “corked”. I blame the lack of foil.
@CObrent @livechild Foil serves no purpose anymore. I prefer that I can see the entire neck of the bottle. It certainly has nothing to do with TCA and a wine being corked.
@CObrent @kaolis agree
@CObrent @kaolis @livechild agreed!
@kaolis @livechild In my case (half case, actually), it was probably the freezing weather, but I’m still a traditionalist with foil. But it’s not a game-changer…OK with whatever…just like the look of the foil.
@CObrent Not trying to be a pain, but cold weather also has nothing to do with a bottle being corked. Not saying you didn’t have any corked bottles, but just pointing out cold weather (can I assume you mean it was cold out during shipping?) does not have anything to do with it.
@kaolis Not a pain at all, but this is what I had on three of the six bottles I received (Wine Woot shipment in December 2017 to Denver):
@CObrent @kaolis I can’t see how foil could hurt. Plus, it’s a traditional touch of class that I feel we should keep going. It’s part of the ritual of opening a bottle.
The presentation is completely off without the foil. It just looks lazy without it. Unbalanced. Unsanitary. Sorry, but that’s my feeling on the subject. There should be something covering the cork. Otherwise, throw a twist cap on it and be done with it.
@CObrent a “corked” wine has nothing to do with the condition of the cork, leakage of the cork, whether the cork is showing signs of seepage. Corked wine is a term for a wine that has become contaminated with cork taint. Cork taint is not simply the taste of a cork. Rather it is caused by the presence of a chemical compound called TCA (2,4,6 - trichloroanisole). The flavor of the wine is similar to wet cardboard or wet newspaper etc.
The fact there is some wine up the side of the cork is totally different from a wine being “corked”. Generally not a concern. Now there could be some other issues of course.
Sounds like you have drunk all six bottles. Did the three with a little wine up the side taste off/bad to you?
@CObrent not being able to edit is a pain. Was just going to add if it was indeed really freezing weather when your was shipped it could push some wine up. Were the corks pushed up at all?
But still different than the wine being corked as in taste/cork contamination.
@kaolis No, the corks weren’t pushed up, but felt looser than others I have pulled (I’m pretty new to drinking wine, still figuring things out, like what to call the condition of the bottles I got in December!). These were Pinot Noir…the first had a stained cork, but my family and I drank it and all of us agreed it wasn’t good - tasted sour to me, but since this was literally my first PN I didn’t know what to expect. The non-stained bottles were all fine, but the second stained cork bottle I opened also tasted “off” to me, again sour. Only sipped it then poured out the rest (along with the entire third bottle with the stain). So, it may be that what I am calling sour is the cork, or could be another issue. Turned me off of PN for now, though - I will circle back someday!
@livechild As a consumer I always pull the wine first without a capsule. Plus I like the way my logo looks on the cork.
@CObrent @livechild foil has nothing to do with whether a wine is corked or not - period.
Hi Dave. Can you comment on the high alcohol and some heat on both bottles per labrat reports? Ive had your wines before (bought the 4 pack when yiu were on wine woot many moons ago) and enjoy your style but the heat is a bit up there IMO. My palate has evolved a bit since I last visited your tasting room three years ago…
Thank you to everyone for the tremendous support! Dave
Aw man. I just tried the granache reserve for the first time. Yuck! It smells like soggy raisins and makes my tongue shrivel up.
I clearly know all the fancy terms.
In a strange turn of events, combining it with chocolate coins makes it taste like shampoo.