Quick advice!

[Bradley Bogdan]

I've got a Dow's '77 VP and a Smith Woodhouse '77 VP available for a tasting tonight, but I'm only planning on opening one. Which should it be and what would be your recommended decant time? They both seem to need some from the TNs here and on CT, so the sooner you guys chime in, the better . Thanks!

[Derek T.]

Hi Bradley,

Welcome to

You are correct, both of these wines benefit from quite long decanting - circa 8 hours.

But one of them is quite hit-and-miss in that D77 tends to suffer some variation in that many bottles turn out to be corked.

My advice to you would be to open SW if you want a safe bet, and open it as soon as you can

Derek

[Andy Velebil]

Hi Bradley,

Welcome to

You are correct, both of these wines benefit from quite long decanting - circa 8 hours.

But one of them is quite hit-and-miss in that D77 tends to suffer some variation in that many bottles turn out to be corked.

My advice to you would be to open SW if you want a safe bet, and open it as soon as you can

Derek

Pretty sound advice from Derek. Although I'd open the Dow's and have the SW ready as a backup in case the Dow's is corked. Or just be safe and do as Derek recommends.

Please let us know how the bottle you open shows!

[Rob C.]

Hi Bradley,

Welcome to

You are correct, both of these wines benefit from quite long decanting - circa 8 hours.

But one of them is quite hit-and-miss in that D77 tends to suffer some variation in that many bottles turn out to be corked.

My advice to you would be to open SW if you want a safe bet, and open it as soon as you can

Derek

Pretty sound advice from Derek. Although I'd open the Dow's and have the SW ready as a backup in case the Dow's is corked. Or just be safe and do as Derek recommends.

Please let us know how the bottle you open shows!

+1

The Dow is likely to show more mature than the SW, so i'd open the Dow first - i had my first un-corked bottle courtesy of Derek a couple of weeks ago and it was fantastic. If it's corked, you haven't lost anything - better to know sooner rather than later - just open the SW as well!

Of course, the slight difficulty with that route is that if the Dow is only very mildly corked, it might take a while for that to show through sufficiently for you to sense it (particularly if your bottle is at a cool cellar temp). I've also had bottles that I've found to be simply mute or flat (but not offensive) that others can tell instantly are corked...so maybe opening the SW is the safe route after all!

[Bradley Bogdan]

Thanks for the thoughts! I wound up opening the SW and leaving the Dow's be for now, after peaking at the corks and seeing a couple nice stripes up the side of the SW. Other than the bottom half of the cork disintegrating, despite what I thought one of my better babying efforts, the wine seems to be showing just fine. I'll be sure to toss in a note when it gets sampled "for real" later.

[Derek T.]

I wound up opening the SW and leaving the Dow's be for now, after peaking at the corks and seeing a couple nice stripes up the side of the SW.

I'm intrigued to know what "nice stripes" are on a cork? I haven't heard that description before and can't think what it could mean in terms of picking a bottle to open. I am happy to be educated

Rob, that D77 wasn't mine. I think it might have been Julian or Phil who brought it along.

[Russ K]

I am guessing "nice" is a little tongue in cheek and he believes he can see some wine making its way up the side of the cork on a jouney to leakageville. Time to pull!

[Bradley Bogdan]

I am guessing "nice" is a little tongue in cheek and he believes he can see some wine making its way up the side of the cork on a jouney to leakageville. Time to pull!

Bingo!

[Derek T.]

Doh!

Good call, Bradley, definitely the way to go