Had a strange experience with an aged bottle and I'm hoping someone can explain the chemistry.
Opened a 1998 Monte Real Gran Reserva last night. Fill level was perfect and the cork looked textbook, so I had no reason to suspect bad storage. Poured a glass and the nose was genuinely off-putting, almost putrid, like cured meat that had gone rotten. The palate wasn't much better. My first thought was that the bottle was faulted, cooked, or a level of oxidized that I had not ever experienced.
I figured I'd give it time before writing it off, so I left it alone. Checked back at 45 minutes and it was basically unchanged. A few hours later though, it was a completely different wine. Both the nose and the palate turned into potpourri. Very floral, lavender and roses with whole spices layered in. Honestly fascinating at that point. Not a easy drinker, but super complex and lots to meditate on.
Everything I've read says this vintage is right in its peak window, which makes the whole thing more confusing.
So what actually happened here? Is a swing this dramatic normal for a bottle this old, or did I get lucky catching it on the other side of something? Would love to understand the mechanism.
by discostew919