The tragedy of the corked 2002 Domaine des Chezeaux Chambertin Grand Cru....

[JimHow]

I've been so swamped in court this week that I'm only now getting around to throwing out the empty bottles from last weekend's Maine invasion from the Deep South. Stefan uncorked this 2002 Chambertin that he and Jacques immediately identified as corked. I would never have identified it as corked and probably would have consumed the whole bottle. I'm just dumping the nearly full bottle out this morning, it is still displaying what seems like a lovely black cherry bouquet to me even more than a week later. I'm not going to taste it though....

[JimHow]

It looks a little darker in this picture than it does in person, so I think this picture is a little deceptive. In person it looks a little more rusty colored and lighter. But damn the nose, even a week later, seems lovely to me. We did not put the cork back in, we just let the nearly full bottle sit there for a week.

[stefan]

You are fortunate not to be TCA sensitive, Jim. This bottle was badly corked. Even you not being very sensitive, the flavors would be very muted for you in comparison to those from an uninfected bottle. Your reaction to the corked bottle after it has been around a week shows that this is one f***ing great wine. Unfortunately, I do not know that from personal experience. Bummer.

I could drink the much more lightly corked 2012 SI Shea Special Selection, but everything was muted. A good bottle of it is outstanding, even comparable to some Grand Cru Burgundies. This I do know from personal experience.