Dashwood MSB has always been a favourite of mine. Never the very best but always a good wine and good value at £7.99 or £6.39 if you can park outside Oddbins and buy 12.

However, the 08 is different to past vintages which have always been light/medium bodied with strong catty/blackcurrant/passion fruit flavours that Marlborough is famous for. The 08 is rich and austere with little or no fruit. MofW Bob descibes these style of wines as tasting of lemon grass.

The most commen match up that I can make is Montana Reserve 08/09.

Question is ( Dunc, Mel, Pont ) is this deliberate or just a quirk of the vintage. And if it is deliberate then how do they subdue the fruit and enhance the body.

And why do they bother....I want my blackcurrant not this twaddle.

Question is ( Dunc, Mel, Pont ) is this deliberate or just a quirk of the vintage. And if it is deliberate then how do they subdue the fruit and enhance the body.

The resultant wine, and fermentation question may be one for Mel.

Bob Campbell said it was a difficult vintage. He meant it. He does not describe what the problems were. But you can look it all up.

As an analogy, these were the probs in the Cote d'Or for the 2008 season and harvest of the chardonnay at Montrachet and Puligny.
Notice the fermentation is not vigorous, and the conversion is slow.
Quote Jancis:
It was even more difficult than usual to cover the ground in Burgundy last November because, unusually, a significant proportion of the 2008s were still, long after the next, much-trumpeted, harvest was safely in barrel, undergoing the second fermentation that transforms harsh malic acid into softer lactic acid. This process was particularly necessary for the 2008s, in which the proportion of malic, usually less than half the tartaric acid component, was its equal. But because there was so much searing malic acid, and because the persistent summer and early autumn rain had tended to wash off the grapes the yeast and lactic acid bacteria that get the fermentations going, the malolactic fermentations were slow to start and proceeded unusually slowly. So, I had to forego, for example, Domaine Leflaive’s Le Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet Les Combettes because they were still slowly bubbling away. (On the rare occasions I was given a taste of a wine still going through le malo, it was so milky, fizzy, harsh and inexpressive that I found it impossible to assess.)

The ripeness and condition of 2008 MSB fruit was not so abundant to begin with, coupled with a less lively fermentation (interpolation) may have resulted in a heavier wine, and, a less pungent wine. A wine with far fewer tropical notes and Just Less Fruit - period.

Goose, you advised folks not to stand in line for the 2008's !

So far, in the retail band under a tenner, Shez has reported JE'08 as the best of a motley crew. I thought it sensibly ok in a straight forward 'pinstripe' style, I also reported that the Reach 08 was acceptably ok, but I only bought pairs - no boxes.

Goose, TBH, for the MSB 08's, I don't think moving around all of the producers is going to help you none. Of course, it just may do so, if you throw enough money at it, but that is not the point, and dumb in a difficult year. That's my 2 cents.

Your search will go on.

_________________
Duncan

Thanks, MrD !

I did leave one glass of the Dashwood overnight to see how it would taste on day two and it was mellow and fruitier without being wonderful.

The body had collapsed completely though as has been the case with the JE 08.

Time to concede defeat and open all remaining 08's and leave whole bottle for second day consumption.

One bottle at a time obviously.