I'm almost embarassed that I need to ask this question, but I guess this is the forum for such things...

What are the premiere characteristics of a wine that is past its peak? I just opened a bottle of Michelle-Schlumberger Syrah North Coast 1999, and the best way I could describe it was to say that it was hollow...Nothing on the nose, and not much to taste, either, outside of some drying tannins in the finish and some spiciness. Maybe a little dark berry, but more of an absence of anything than any significant notes.

Is that the sign of a wine past its peak?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CaliCab,

I don't know anything about this wine of course, but I would say that a wine past it's peak would rather be flat and dull than "hollow".
As you describe it, this wine may have shut down. If it's meant to be a keeper that's what you might expect after some five, six years. In such a case your wine will wake up after a year or two and show it's prime.
if it's just a ****ty wine of course, it will be past it's peak then...

Nobody ever said it's easy.