Wine Blog Wednesday was a bust at Chez Pete and Trish.

I was too busy (read: too lazy) to really hit the stores and search for what I wanted - a California red at 12.5 percent alcohol or less. To be sure, it would have been a challenge - one I don't think I'm done with yet - but, this Wednesday, it was not to be.

We mined our cellar instead.

The Chef came up with a Chateau Castera Rouge 1994 Cru Bourgeois Medoc, a Bordeaux from a mediocre year.

It was corked.

It wasn't badly corked, but after being open for about 10 minutes, what little alcohol was left had burned off. All I could taste was the musty taint. Not a winner.

Luckily, we had a second bottle of the very same wine in the cellar. What the heck? No cork taint this time, but the wine wasn't especially good either. Moderate- to light-bodied. Soft cherry fruit on the nose, with background notes of dried dates. Some good dirt and dark chocolate in the palate, but then it just faded away. It was either past its peak or very near it. The approaching-brick color gave it away.

Sigh. But, wine, it is a living thing.


Categories: wine, wine blogs, Bordeaux