Great then Poof!

[Chef Fowke]

I have always been a huge fan of anything Leonetti. Tonight I had the privilege of tasting a bottle of the 1992 Select Walla Walla Valley. When we first opened the wine it was aromatic, powerful and exciting!

We could see that it had thrown at lot of sediment so we decanted...

Luckily we did this right before we served the main course; maple cured Muscovy duck with an Okanagan peach and leek sauce on kohlrabi, cress and rocket sauté, a great match!!!!

The wine was a perfect 10/10!!! It was decanted and served in Riedel.

Now, here is the chilling part. When I was cleaning up with my wife, after everyone had left I poured the last 4oz into a glass to imbibe. It had turned watery and lacklustre. Lacklustre! No life, deceased!

This terrified me. I was going to decant the wine when my guests presented it to me, on arrival. Thankfully I was to busy and forgot to...

Are the 1992 at the end of their lives?

Post Script: Also tasted the Argyle 1991 Extended Triage DoD (80% Pinot Noir 20% Chardonnay)...why buy Cristal? This was the best champagne (sparkling wine) I have ever tasted!

[Brad Ballinger]

I had this same 1992 Leonetti Walla Walla about five years ago and it was showing age then. The Walla Walla wasn't meant to go the distance as the Cabernet to begin with, so that is certainly part of it.

Also, these wines have so much oak. When the fruit starts fading, either with age or aeration, the oak is going to show more and more. I had a 1995 Cab that behaved similarly to your 1992 Walla Walla.

[Lancelot]

I work wine retail and have followed Leonetti wine for the past 12-14 years. I am positive that the best time to drink Leonetti wines is in the first 2-3 years. They are monumental, magnificent wines that show extemely well in the first years of their lives, I am not however convinced that they improve with age (they will hold but that's different from saying they get better). They are usually exremely harmonious and polished right out of the shoot, so why wait? Most people I talk to regret not drinking them sooner.

If you are looking for longer term agers from Washington , Quilceda Creek and Chaleur are better bets.

[Chef Fowke]

I went to the website and they said you could lay this bottle down for a few more years!!

The bottle I drank came from a private, temp/humidity controlled cellar in Seattle and was bought in the first year of release.

It did travel in the week we drank it...could that have been a factor?

[nwyles]

Could your wife have outsmarted you , took the wine and replaced it with plonk ?