Cellar Craft Young Showcase Cabernet Red Mountain tastes of overripe bananas?

[jsiddall]

Tonight I tried a split of a Showcase Cabernet Red Mountain I made at a local FoP. It is now 6 months old, in the bottle for just over 4 of those, so obviously still young. However, it has changed little in those 4 months and still has the same prominent smell and taste of overripe bananas that it had when bottled. This is the first red kit I did but I also did a CC Showcase Argentina Malbec and an RJS WS Super Tuscan at the same place and they tasted similar at bottling. Is this a normal flavor? If so is it something I can expect will go away entirely in the next year or so?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[ibglowin]

That kit needs a minimum of 12 months and 18 months is almost a necessity to give it some proper amount of time to settle down and mature. As for over ripe banana smell/taste at 6 months. Couldn't tell you as I don't open any of mine for at least 12-14 months. Give it another 6 months before you even think about it again. It's wine, not beer.

 

[FTC Wines]

I agree with Mike. At 12 mo it was good, really good at 16 mo, ordered 2 more kits, should be here any day now! Roy

 

[jsiddall]

I made quite a few splits so I could sample every few months and see how things changed over time. I was not expecting the banana-ish taste, even young, but I will continue to hope for good things to come. I guess I was hoping for more since I have read about some people who start drinking them at 6 months. Not me!

 

[nucjd]

Have you ever had a beajoulais neouveau? As you may or may not know this wine is the left over wine ( ADDENDUM not left over… Gamay grapes) that was not bottled for the vintage and mixed and sold the same year it was made. It has big fanfare for what it is and IMHO is hyped for marketing to get out early. Beajoulais neouveau to my taste has a banana flavor to it heavily which irritates me to no end and I can not drink it. Like the above guys said it is probably a just a newborn wine and needs to age. Having tasted beajoulais neouveau I now have a context for what you are talking about and the wines that are aged from the same juice that beajoulais neouveau is made from has no banana taste to it once aged.

Addendum:
Per DoctorCAD Gamay grapes and NOT left over Grapes. My error

 

[jsiddall]

Have you ver had a beajoulais neouveau? As you may or may not know this wine is the left over wine that was not bottled for the vintage and mixed and sold the same year it was made. It has big fanfare for what it is and IMHO is a marketing ploy to get rid of the left overs quickly. Beajoulais neouveau to my taste has a banana flavor to it heavily which irritates me to no end and I can not drink it. Like the above guys said it is probably a just a newborn wine and needs to age. Having tasted beajoulais neouveau I now have a context for what you are talking about and the wines that are aged from the same juice that beajoulais neouveau is made from has no banana taste to it once aged.

Nope, I had never even heard of beaujolais nouveau until now. Interesting info from wikipedia:

...the wine can be dominated by such fruity ester flavours as banana, grape, strawberry, fig and pear drop.

So maybe that is how I percieve "young". Sadly it is not an agreeable taste, but on the upside I won't be tempted to drink any bottles before it's well aged!

The only disconcerting bit is this quote:

While some nouveau can be kept for a few years, there's no real reason to, as it doesn't improve with age

Not sure why that's true but I'm glad it doesn't seem to be the case for these kits.

I'll try waiting patiently now.

 

[sour_grapes]

Citing Beaujolais noveau could be a bit of a red herring. In order to be able to be somewhat drinkable young, that wine is fermented using carbonic maceration, rather than traditional fermentation. The idea is that the wine winds up with fewer compounds (such as tannins) that require long-term aging to integrate, resulting in a wine that is ready to drink sooner. And that is also why it does not much benefit from aging.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Citing Beaujolais noveau could be a bit of a red herring. In order to be able to be somewhat drinkable young, that wine is fermented using carbonic maceration, rather than traditional fermentation. The idea is that the wine winds up with fewer compounds (such as tannins) that require long-term aging to integrate, resulting in a wine that is ready to drink sooner. And that is also why it does not much benefit from aging.

And it is NOT a "leftover" wine. It is new gamay grape crops, fermented and bottled quickly and rushed to be the first wine of the year. It is an acquired taste and it is also a major headache contributor. Don't ask how I know...

 

[nucjd]

Sorry DoctorCAD, forgot about the Gamay grape. Edited.

Also forgot about the carbonic maceration they did. Thanks sour grapes it was just a thought of the newness helping create the banana flavor which would go away with aging and is probably normal at this point.

 

[SouthernChemist]

If you smell banana, the culprit is probably isoamyl acetate and some analogous esters of higher alcohols. I wouldn't worry about it at this point...this wine really needs another year or so to start showing what it's made of.

Carbonic maceration tends to produce a lot of relatively simple organic compounds that chemically have nowhere to go. You end up with sometimes very intense yet single note aromas/flavors. I've had Beaujolais Nouveau that tasted like bubble gum, and I've had some that tasted like a bad Hefeweizen. It should be noted, though, that not all Beaujolais Nouveau is produced using carbonic maceration. There are small producers that use traditional fermentation while still releasing the wine quickly. They're distinctly different from the mass produced fare (and better tasting).

 

[kevinlfifer]

On the topic of Beaujolais noveau, a friend of mine has a 2001 he's saving. I don't have the heart to tell him. I just don't want him to share it with me.