2010 La Pointe

[barsacpinci]

I opened this yesterday and after one glass I was going to dump it down the drain. It was sour, flat and just hard to swallow. No fruit at
All. Glad I didn’t dump. Today, it has a spiced cider nose with plenty of plum notes on the palate. The sourness from the day before has subsided into a nice just right tannic balance with the fruit. It can keep another five years


Btw. What does a “Blanquito” mean in terms of timeframe. I see you all use that term

[JimHow]

BP, it is a term in the BWE dictionary based on Patrick's (Blanquito) propensity for always thinking that a wine needs more age, "another five years..."

Thus, one "blanquito" is a wine that needs 5 more years of aging, two blanquitos is 10, three blanquitos is 15 years, etc...

To "How" a wine means to drink a wine young, even in its infancy, like the 2019 Montrose I had the other night. Thus, to "How" a wine means to drink the young in its youth.

A "howquito" is that rare confluence where my aging preference of a wine overlaps with Patrick's aging preference (I prefer drinking a wine on an upward slope of maturity or at maturity, Patrick prefers to drink it at maturity or on the downward slope). Thus... a "howquito."

One edit:
I don't think it's fair to say blanquito prefers to drink a wine on its downward slope, but rather, if he had a choice between upward slope or downward slope, he would chose downward slope.

These are very idiomatic terms we have here in BWE Nation.

[AKR]

I opened this yesterday and after one glass I was going to dump it down the drain. It was sour, flat and just hard to swallow. No fruit at
All. Glad I didn’t dump. Today, it has a spiced cider nose with plenty of plum notes on the palate. The sourness from the day before has subsided into a nice just right tannic balance with the fruit. It can keep another five years


Btw. What does a “Blanquito” mean in terms of timeframe. I see you all use that term

That doesn't seem like it was sound, tbh

[barsacpinci]

I thought the same on the first day but why would it improve so much the next day?

[stefan]

I've had some 2010 that I considered awful, but they did not improve that much on the second day.

[ericp]

Brian, I’ve had a very similar experience with this wine but still managed to choke it all down before day two started. I have 2 left, sounds like maybe a six hour decant might be in order for the next attempt.

[DavidG]

What’s the point?

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Don’t mean to be dismissive at all. I have experienced wines that show much better on day two. Usually younger wines but not always. I’ve heard various attempts to explain why. Not sure if any of them resonated. My current working theory is “the mystery of wine.”

[Harry C.]

Weird. La Pointe has never been a top wine, IMO. 2010 was a tannic year, seems drinking it too young. But these don’t fully explain your experience.

[greatbxfreak]

It's pretty normal with wines tasting better on the day two or three. I often experience that. Oxygen influence?

White Bordeaux when tasting oxidated or even corked, will according to my experience often recover in the carafe after 30-45 minutes.

[Ognik]

Liked 2012 La Pointe a bit back in 2021.
Solid 90P wine at aprox 30€ ep.

[stefan]

>>
White Bordeaux when tasting oxidated or even CORKED, will according to my experience often recover in the carafe after 30-45 minutes.
>>
This is a new one for me. I have never, ever had a corked wine that improved with air. Indeed, oxygenation seems always to make the TCA more pronounced.

Has anyone else shared Isak's experience in having a corked wine improve?

[DavidG]

>>
White Bordeaux when tasting oxidated or even CORKED, will according to my experience often recover in the carafe after 30-45 minutes.
>>
This is a new one for me. I have never, ever had a corked wine that improved with air. Indeed, oxygenation seems always to make the TCA more pronounced.

Has anyone else shared Isak's experience in having a corked wine improve?

I’ve personally seen it happen with white Châteauneuf that seemed oxidized on opening, not with white Bordeaux. Though I don’t doubt it could happen. Not sure how or why this happens. I would say it’s unusual or rare to see recovery, not often. At least in my experience.

A corked wine (one contaminated with TCA or TBA) can’t and won’t recover with air. IMNSHO, anyone who thinks they’ve seen that happen was mistaken about the wine being corked.

[stefan]

Sure, David; oxidized wines sometimes improve a lot, and sulfur can blow off. But I also don't see how a corked wine might improve.

[DavidG]

Neither do I Bill.

I have tried the Saran Wrap trick and seen noticeable reduction in the wet cardboard smell. Maybe a little more fruit poking through. But nowhere near a full restoration.

[stefan]

Yes, I have had some modest success with that trick, David. Also, eating roasted red peppers helps to mask the TCA. I resort to such maneuvers only when I have a single bottle of a wine I really want to try. Usually I just use the wine to kill bacteria in the drain pipes.