Good news / Bad news

[Jenise]

The good news:

I opened a carton of mixed wines bought on Wine Commune two years ago this month to discover that instead of shipping me two bottles of 2004 Clos du Val Napa Cabernet they shipped me two bottles of--are you sitting down?--2004 Mommessin Clos de Tart (Tanzer 95). I paid $17.50 each.


The bad news:

The carton was shipped to me in September of 2007 and had been lost in my garage all this time.

That's going for $180.00 a bottle here in DC! What luck!
What are the conditions like in your garage and how do you think the wine has been affected?

[Jenise]

My garage is inadvertently heated by the cooling system for the wine cellar AC in the summer and the gas furnace for the rest of the house in the winter. It is usually 70ish in there. So, that's not good. But the box was near the doors which are left open a few inches most nights to keep the garage from getting too warm. There were actually two lost boxes (styrofoam shippers, which helps), and both were stored low with one direct on cool concrete--have no idea which one was on the bottom, though. They somehow got buried a long time ago what with all the appliances that were accumulating for our remodel. Hopefully, the combination of factors means that they were no worse than passively stored, but temps have been in the 80's here on and off since the first of June and of course, with construction going on, the garage doors were wide open a lot of the time. Hopefully, they suffered nothing worse than average passive storage but all the same it's not how you'd want to treat bottles like that. If only I'd known--not that this is my main issue or anything like it, but I hate to think I missed out on two whole years of gloating over a windfall like that!

I guess you're just going to have to open one soon and see what happened .

On the plus side, maybe all the green elements that some people complain about from 04 were cooked away!

The high temperatures should have accelerated the maturation process but let us hope not too much .

I hope your experience is better than mine. I've always found Clos de Tart somewhat dissapointing (but I probably haven't had a bottle in ten years).

Anyone have similar experiences? Did the Domaine have a down period?

[David M. Bueker]

The domaine did have a down period, and has been a lot better since the late '90s. Of course there are some who feel that the down period was when they were making their best wines, but we don't need to get into that.

But if it was discovered 2 years ago I'm sure you would have contacted seller, so you wouldn't have gotten the Clos de Tart! No point now (especially since you are unsure re condition).

[Jenise]

I hope your experience is better than mine. I've always found Clos de Tart somewhat dissapointing (but I probably haven't had a bottle in ten years).

Anyone have similar experiences? Did the Domaine have a down period?

I loved loved loved the '96, which a friend happened to have bought heavily of so I had it several times. I've only had one other vintage, but both were enough to make me catch my breath when I pulled these out of the case on Sunday. Thing is, I know I've bid on them in the past but I've never actually won any and was sure I'd have remembered it and been totally excited about it if I had--I have a phenomenal memory and would have been looking for, waiting for, the box that held this wine. I would like to have a picture of what my face must have looked like yesterday morning as I went back through all the old auction records to find out when I bought this and what I paid for it, and realized the mistake that must have occurred when I saw the words "2004 Clos du Val".

[Jenise]

But if it was discovered 2 years ago I'm sure you would have contacted seller, so you wouldn't have gotten the Clos de Tart! No point now (especially since you are unsure re condition).

You're right on all counts.

I should open one of the other bottles contained in the same box just to get a read on what went on in there, shouldn't I? I'll do that tonight, it will give me some assurance (or not) about the condition of the others going forward.