Storage Conditions and possibile drinkablilty

You may get some pleasant surprises - the 87s particularly may have survived whatever history they've had.

Pop the corks and tell us what you find.

Brent: I'd hazzard you are right about the '80 Merlot...a little past it's peak.... All the others, however, could be real gems. Do, please give us feedback when you uncork...

Enjoy Mathew

Should I continue to hold any of these or should I drink them all immediately?

Brent

I just pulled the cork on the '86 Kendall Jackson. The cork was a little dry but I was able to remove it whole.

I am ultimately surprised at the wine! I was expecting some undrinkable swill especially after having the cork crumble. But to my surprise, I have never tasted any Kendal Jackson with such luscious smoothness. It doesn't have quite the body and fullness that I normally associate with Cabs. Could this be due to the aging?

Regardless, I am really enjoying this wine. The age seems to have mellowed and quite possibly significantly improved this wine.

I am really looking forward to trying the others.

Brent

(silence)

Guess what!! You've just learned why "us Brits" like wines that are properly aged.

yes, almost certainly. As it ages, wine tends to lose acidity and tannin, which can make it more agreeable to drink. But it also tends to convert fruit for complexity. In France they distinguish between the primary flavours (fruit, freshness), followed by secondary and tertiary flavours. The fruit is reduced, but you get more and more complexity and (IMO) interest.

When the wine gets TOO old, it thins out, and has less and less flavour. (Usually).

Absolutely.

Just one word of warning. Not all Cabs are designed for aging, and if there's not much fruit there to start with, you won't get much interest later.

All the Best Ian Hoare (About to visit Arrowood today).

I opened the 87 Simi and the 85 Vichon for Thanksgiving. The 87 Simi was not very good. It had a pretty unpleasant aftertaste but it wasn't as undrinkable as the 85 Vichon. That had a very acidic taste- close to rotten vinegar?

I also opened the 80 Chateau St. Michelle Merlot, but I expected that to be horrible since it was much too old for a Merlot (so I am told). Indeed it was terrible.

Anyway, I am hoping for better things with the rest of the bottles. I guess this proves that despite decent storage conditions, you just don't know what has happened to the wine before you bought it.

Also, old bottles of a given wine display great bottle variation. You may experience this if you have duplicate bottles.

Tom Schellberg

I tried the rest of the wines during Thanksgiving.

So it is strange that the Kendall Jackson was the only wine to survive the years.

The ability to age is not always an indicator of quality but may indicate a large amount of preservatives. I visited K-J a number of years ago and mentioned to my wife that it reminded me more of a chemical plant than a winery. Bi!!