This is the first entry in shoe's wine review. why this bottle? no reason...i
went to the store to research some champagne for a future trip to france and
decided to buy a bottle of red french wine. i tried to find the oldest bottle of
wine possible and this was it (i didn't go to a wine shop...just a shopette).
at this time i don't know very much about wine, although i've been reading a lot
about it lately....everyone needs a hobby and i'm getting too old to run around
the soccer field like i used to, so......here goes.... i will attempt to use
terminology that i've learned through my reading....big nose, long legs, stuff
like that...bear with me...
now, i've had a lot of wine...a lot. that doesn't make me a connoisseur, but i
have developed some sense of what's good, and what's not good, wine. my understanding
is that what ever you like, is good...but, i know there's more to it than that.
ok...so what about the 98 Bergerie de l'Arbous? i opened the bottle and let it
breath for about 15 minutes. is that enough time? too much? i don't know, but
it seemed about right. i poured a glass in accordance with directions i downloaded
and began the ritual of "the tasting"...which, by the way, doesn't begin with tasting,
but looking. being a red wine, it was of course red. now which red i'm not sure,
but i'd describe it as garnet. after i get more experienced at this, it might
actually be ruby, but does it really matter. i swirled it around in the glass
and then i held it up to the light...it was
a beautiful red...enough about the color. now comes the next part of tasting...smelling.
the first sensation i had was encouraging and i was getting all set for a pleasant
experience but then i smelled something else. at first i couldn't put my finger on it
but then i was thinking plastic...but that wasn't right either. i had to really
think about it and then it dawned on me...flowers, old flowers. now i've read that
you may smell flowers in wine, but i wasn't really prepared for old flowers. not sure if
that's good or bad. if i had to use wine lingo, i'd say that this wine had a
medium nose. now it was time for the tasting (finally)! as i drew the wine into
my mouth, again i was encouraged. the taste was full, fruity (i think), and
overall rather pleasant. after about 5 seconds it began to bite a little, probably
because of the alcohol content (12.5%), but it was also a little bitter. the good
thing was that i couldn't smell the old flowers anymore, and i suppose the taste
is the reason we drink it anyway, so i have to let the old flower thing go. no
more talk about the old flowers. ok, so i chewed on the wine for another 5 seconds
or so and swallowed. the initial after taste was ok and then the longer i waited,
the more bitter the after taste, but not so much that it was unpleasant. i repeated
the above process with the same results...not sure if that's what i'm supposed to do,
but it seemed appropriate.
overall i think the 98 Bergerie de l'Arbous is a good wine. on a scale of 1 to 5 stars,
i'd give it 2.5.