Cellar Craft Camenere International Showcase

[rhattin]

Made CC Showcase Carmere last year, bottled Oct 2011, and now tasting it. Tartaric has dropped out so it is ready to go. I number my bottles. On the last bottle, the wine tasted like a very full bodied port - a lot of sweetness and lots of power ( I am guessing 14% +). Not what I was expecting.
Tasted bottle number 27 and it was very much like a Chilean Carmenere should taste - long finish, rich, full bodied in the middle, and soft at the front end, with a bit of tang. It had developed a good nose as well.
I make a lot of kit wine(70 kits per year) and I have not had a similar experience on other varietals or kit types.
Has anyone else experienced significant taste difference within a batch, or was it an artifact that it was last bottle bottled? I do not filter my reds, and I vacuum degass during transfers and during bottling.
Experiences??
Ric

 

[andy123]

Carmenere is my first love. I've read that if you bulk age you get 30 bottles of the same wine and if you bottle at 6-8 weeks you get 30 bottles with individual character. With the last bot having the odd character one wonders if there was something extra in the tales of the batch. What do you do with 2000 bottles of wine a year?

 

[rhattin]

I make wine for a lot of friends ($ 1/bot), developing a backlog for 3 yrs ( that takes about 1000 bottles) and then there is the personal consumption ......
Have subsequently tried bottle #29 and it was perfect.
What amazedme on bottle 30 was the full sweetness of the wine. You could still taste the Carmenere but there was this smooth cover that begged for a good blue cheese.
Have you had these variations as well
Ric
Wine Time Factory
www.winetimefactory.com