This bottle was made from brown glass, so probably a Belgian bottling,and sadly the cork had fallen into the wine.
After pouring it, only the very first glass contained a lovely transparentliquid, every next glass became more and more cloudy, until the verylast (mine) was really murky. Even after a couple of hours these very fine free-floating particles wouldn’t settle completely and so a thin haze remained.
A bit harder to determine this way, but the color was light cherry gradually changing into brownish to very rusty in the rim.
A very funky aroma wafted up from the glass, something very close to a corked wine but not quite the same, it reeked of saw dust, damp cellar mixed with potting soil and a greenish botanical touch as well.
Not really enticing at all then but with a little effort were some more appealing odors discernible as well : it also smelled of sweet spices with a dab of marzipan though these were hardly enough to make me rush to the occasion to get a taste of it.
And there was the big surprise : it tasted not only much better than it smelled, but was actually really good. Only the very first sip had an overly grip of terribly firm tannins, bringing the fear of having a corked wine back to mind, but only a couple of minutes later this surprising wine had completely opened up and shown a completely different side. This caterpillar turned out to be a butterfly after all, it was sweet, spicy and fruity mixture, very supple,plush and with a terrific and long lasting after taste.
It goes to show once again that looks (and smells) can be deceiving and you should always give your wine a second chance before dismissing it.
Dc
