bizarre test results

[winemaker81]

Yesterday was an eventful day. My son & I intended to do another tasting in the Oak Stix Experiment, top up the barrels, and bottle Sauvignon Blanc. The day proved to be far more eventful -- well -- eventful to a winemaker.

The Oak Stix tasting was odd -- all the wines tasted muted compared to last time. [I've written my explanation elsewhere and won't repeat here.] The Sauvignon Blanc is very tasty and we're happy with the result, other than eventually wishing we had more of it. The barrels contain different blends (both Merlot heavy) and we're very pleased with both.

The bizarre result? We had half a glass of unoaked topup for the oak stix experiment and half a glass from one of the barrels, so I opened a bottle of the 2019 2nd run. This is an equal mix of Merlot, Malbec, & Zinfandel which spent 10 months in a neutral barrel, including 4 months with medium toast French cubes. It was bottled last November(?) when the 2020 wine was ready to go into the barrel.

Let's do another tasting!!! [Neither of us was hard to convince!]

We tasted the topup first, expecting it to be least favorite -- no oak, it's a green 2nd run wine. It's good for what it is, both the type and the age.

Second we tasted the 2019 2nd run. As expected it was far superior.

Then we tasted 2020 1st run barrel sample.

It came in 2nd place. Yeah, the older 2nd run wine was superior to our taste buds. We tasted again in reverse order, same result.

Our conclusion: the 2019 2nd run spent more time in the barrel and is a year older. That extra time made a wine that is lesser in all respects -- body, etc. -- the better wine. The extended conclusion is to let the reds age; in most situations it improves the wine.

We are going to taste test the wines a year from now to see how the result changes.

 

[Ajmassa]

For a red wine it continues to appear that none of our interferences can compete with good ol age. I’ve said it before, one of my best wines was a no frills bare bones Cab juice bucket. No nutrient. No mlf. No oak. Bottled at 9mos. No so2 whatsoever. At 1 yr was just ‘meh’. Accidentally aged a couple unlabeled bottles 4+ Yrs. (to that point nothing ever got beyond 1.5yrs)
The wine blew me away. And I learned an important lesson on the value of time firsthand.

 

[user 38734]

For a red wine it continues to appear that none of our interferences can compete with good ol age. I’ve said it before, one of my best wines was a no frills bare bones Cab juice bucket. No nutrient. No mlf. No oak. Bottled at 9mos. No so2 whatsoever. At 1 yr was just ‘meh’. Accidentally aged a couple unlabeled bottles 4+ Yrs. (to that point nothing ever got beyond 1.5yrs)
The wine blew me away. And I learned an important lesson on the value of time firsthand.

Wait, what?

Not possible since the lack of oak would have made the juice limp and unstructured and no SO2, being a "too risky" "ticking time bomb", would have destroyed it within days.