Recently I noticed Castel ‘C’ Blanc 2000 on sale at a Chicago auction house.  My first reaction was, “good luck selling those".  Even though Castel C Blanc is top quality Israeli Chardonnay, experience had taught me that the stuff doesn’t live forever.  And how did they end up with this rare older non-kosher Castel in the first place?  Whose collection did this come from?  The only clue is the importer on the back of the label: Wine Vine Imports, Chicago, Illinois.

I probably would have forgotten about this wine completely, except that earlier this month Eli Ben Zakon, the proprietor of Castel, visited Chicago and stopped by the store.  He mentioned that at this year's Kosher Food & Wine Experience they poured the 2003 C Blanc.  He thought it was a treat to have the 2003 open and was pleased with how well it was drinking.  This made me think of those 2000 C Blanc's hanging out at the auction house, and being offered at a very reasonable price.  I got the idea that I would buy a bottle and send it to Eli in New York.  Unfortunately, he flew back to Israel before I could execute my plan, so I figured the next best thing would be to open it and share the experience with the world.

  When I went to pick-up the 2000 C Blanc I was planning to check the color before signing for the bottle.  I went over a scenario in my head where I get there, the wine is severely browning, and I think about what I should do-- too late to get my money back?  Needless to say I wasn't expecting a wine in good shape.  But when the clerk brought out my wines and I whipped out the C Blanc, I was immediately struck with how great it looked—not much different, if at all, from current vintages of C Blanc, very light and transparent looking from the outside.

Now much more excited to taste this old Chard', I set it on the kitchen counter when I got home until I could get a chance to do my "virtual tasting".  What will it taste like, perfect aged white Burgundy? Or will looks deceive and it turns out to be swill?

The next day I get a chance to open the bottle, here’s the blow-by-blow account of the tasting:

0.01--- I put the bottle in the freezer, set the timer for 35 minutes

0.36 – take the bottle out of the fridge and remove the capsule: cork looks perfect, no signs of leakage

0.37 – the cork comes out easily—it’s rather long, feels dense and is smooth on the outside—these are the genuine Portuguese, 1-Euro-a-piece, corks Castel prides itself on using.

-- just pulling out the cork and fumbling with it I get a nice whiff of nutty-lemon.  Smells promising so far.

-- the wine is a golden yellow in the glass, nothing unusual here.

--- it smells good, lemony, smells high quality, has a classic buttery oak and vanilla smell--all that stuff associated with oak fermentation and ageing, but not in a bad way, it’s not over the top.

--- stout acidity hits the palate.  It tastes like Chardonnay!  Mostly citrus on the palate.  The oak is less of a factor in the taste than you might expect from the aroma—it comes off as a zippy white wine in the mouth.

--the wine doesn’t have a very long finish, getting some yeastiness on the finish.

--re-cork it and stick it in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

1.07-- re-taste after 30 mintues, it smells exactly like sherry, not a bad thing.

--stout acidity still felt.  Some unpleasant flavors are creeping in on the finish, some musty wood flavor, oxidized apple.

-- there isn’t a lot of fruit at this stage of the wine’s evolution.  The taste is dominated by citrusy-lemon flavor, with charred oak and burnt sugar coming though on the finish.

--Tasting better as it sits in the glass, acidity integrating better with the flavor.

-- Is the fruit developing or am I just getting more intoxicated? As the wine warms up I get more of a grilled pineapple flavor on the palate. 

Conclusion

Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable wine, I could see it being even better with the right combination of food.  That said, I think that it's decidedly past the ideal drinking window.  People who particularly savor old wine might appreciate it more than me.    I should say though, that it didn't take long for half the bottle to disappear, which says something for the wine.

 If I just grabbed this bottle off the shelf not knowing anything about the wine or the winery, I wouldn't be too disappointed, but I probably wouldn't buy it again.  It was definitely interesting, though.  All in all, I won't be rushing to pick up the rest of the 2000's from the auction house, but I do have a little more respect for the aging potential of the C Blancs.