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30 December 2008 - Wine character varies with terroir but also vintage; place but also time. These characteristics change with age as well -
tannins soften in the bottle and wines often mellow. One way to learn these differences is through vertical tasting - sampling several vintages
of the same wine from the same winemaker. In the past few months we've tasted our way through several verticals.
Starting off in Australia, there was a broken vertical of the
2001,
2003 and
2004
Penfolds Kalima Shiraz. Also titled Bin 28, these wines showed profound variation through the years and all were still quite good. The most
constant feature was the wine's fruitiness, although to preserve this character in 2003 the winemaker expanded the bin's range to include all of
South Eastern Australia. Also from Penfolds is Bin 138 - a blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourv�dre from the Barossa Valley in South Australia.
Here we sampled the
2004,
2005 and
2006
vintages. Since the blend varied greatly between the years it was difficult to seperate what was vintage and what was varietal among the
variations.
While three bottles is a good number for a group of six to eight, if there's only three or four people getting together two bottles is
probably better. Two year verticals are surprisingly easy to find at your local wine store with a little digging through the racks or talking
to the store clerk (or if you're lucky sommelier). That's how I happened upon the
2003 and
2004
Hayman & Hill Zinfandel from the Dry Creek Valley. Here is a great example of vintage variation, where the younger 2004 was noticably better
than the 2003. Of course, these guys are new in the business and the variation might actually reflect experience. Then there's the
2004 and
2005
Napa Valley St Helena Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel from Chase Cellars. The family has grown vines on this land for a century and vinified it
themselves for the past decade. Ergo it was unsurprising to find the older wine was well developed while the 2005 was still a bit young.
However many people and bottles you may have vertical tastings will always intellectualize your drinking experience!
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