I agree with you. However when a wine reaches that ideal point varies with the producer, the vineyard and the vintage. There us no one size fits all. Quality related in part to ageability, and so if it happens after only a few years it frequently means that the wine has a limited lifespan before it falls over the edge

Thank you - yes I really think it is subjective! There seems to be a lot of dogma in the wine world that older is "better", but it really depends what you want from a wine.

@@swanfibre That is pretty much what those things mean! I feel like somewhere in-between the fruit/flowers and the mushrooms/manure is a sweet spot of something really interesting but personally I'd prefer it to be a bit closer to the former rather than the latter!

It is an interesting juncture because truffles are often described as being perfume like. Although I think at least part of that is wrapped up in the fact they have a similarity (either coincidental or evolutionary...?) to pig pheromones. A lot of perfumes also traditionally had animalistic pheromone notes! ...and of course floral top notes. I think all of those things are somehow on the same spectrum.

Use of sulphur both in the vineyard and winery is really common and one of the main reasons is to prevent fungal diseases like powdery mildew. In fact even organic wines permit use of sulphur - it can be organically derived. It's not something I've ever been particularly worried about as it feels fairly natural to me - present in everything from hot springs to, of course, eggs!