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When to drink Cloudy Bay

I am deeply unfashionable by nature, and may be the last wino on the planet who still finds Cloudy Bay a good slurp and even (gasp), value for money!

Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with drinking it at different stages of youth.  I have just opened a 2007 and discovered a wrinkly old fella.  Tastes flat and tired,- no zing or spring in its step.  Notes of cardboard, straw and sour lemon.

Conversely I find baby Cloudy Bay, on release, a bit uninspiring.  Almost too fresh and grassy.

So I have concluded that my favourite time to drink this Kiwi standard is about 12-18 months after release where I find the classic cats’ piss, gooseberries and lots of fresh zingy grapefruit.

Has anyone tried this with other Kiwi Sauvignon Blancs?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 20th, 2010 at 9:52 pm and is filed under new zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “When to drink Cloudy Bay”

  1. André Cid Says:
    August 24th, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Hi Alister

    a couple of weeks ago, I opened a bottle of 2007 Cloudy Bay SB. And for me… it was disapointing as you can see here http://www.adegga.com/wine/AVIN9327078934343 very vegetal… no fruits, no tropical aromas that I was aspecting from other kiwi SB’s (maily the Secret Stone SB) I’d try…

    well next time I’ll drink it younger

  2. Confessions of a Wino » Blog Archive » Exhibition Sancerre, 2012 Says:
    August 31st, 2013 at 11:46 am

    […] seems ages since people seriously contemplated that new fangled New Zealand upstarts like Cloudy Bay might put the Loire Valley out of business. The subtleties of the wines of the French region are […]

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