The “Premox” remake? A Winehog Comment

I am worried … truly and deeply worried!!

I have tasted some high-quality whites from recent vintages … and there is a worrying tendency. I find that even very good wines are fading and oxidising. Some of these are just fading and lacking energy with a remote oxidative hint, while others are far worse off, badly fading into a semi-oxidative state.

I have noticed this issue for the last years, and I think it is time to speak up, discuss and research this seemingly growing problem.

The wines mainly hit by this are low-sulphured chardonnays with regular corks … and to be honest, some of these wines are not ageing very well … some are more or less gone after 5 years!

Is it a new premox epidemic?

In my view, there are some very strong similarities…sorry to say so. But getting more and more wines, 5-year-old suffering from mild or even wild oxidation, is to me a remake of a movie I don’t want to see again.

So I will taste more of these wines “prone to premox” … low sulphur and normal corks … to establish the extent of the problem.

Sadly, I feel these tastings will most likely result in a severe demotion of some highly praised estates, as the wines simply don’t seem to hold up to even normal cellaring … even 1er Crus from as recently as 2019 have this fading feel of getting old and slightly oxidised …

– Does the term 4-5 years and oxidised ring a bell …?

Who are they?

I will not mention names yet … but producers at risk are low-sulphured Chardonnays with standard corks … i.e. not with Diam or equivalent stoppers.

Producers using Diam or similar stoppers seem to be safer to cellar, although a Diam stopper does not guarantee a good wine in the bottle! Likewise, producers using high or normal levels of sulphur still seem to be safer, but the ever-increasing phenolic ripeness is a joker in this game.

When the first phase of Premox was progressing … let’s just say during the bad period from 1995 to 2007, some producers got away with hiding and continuing 10 years without doing anything to eliminate the Premox problem.

This should not be allowed to happen again …

So, producer names will be mentioned as “prone to early oxidation” … or “prone to Premox”.

And while it is similar to the Premox, this early oxidation could be even more serious, as it seems to be more across the board and not only limited to poor examples with bad corks (corks with high oxidation). It seems that some producers are misjudged the level of sulphur needed to keep the wines for ageing for 5 years or more.

So, I leave you with this question … is it unreasonable to demand that a white chardonnay should be able to age for 5 years without being marked by serious oxidation?

Stay tuned