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Bad Wine
Finding Faults
For the last 25 years, we have published numerous rants about corked wines and how to identify them. Things are much better now. With the introduction of screw caps, synthetic corks, and a serious push by the cork industry to clean up their act, I would estimate that the instance of cork taint has fallen below one percent. It's still out there, but it's better. The truth is there are a lot of things that can go wrong with wine, and believe me when I say we have tasted most of them. This time, instead of just cork taint, I'll try to help you identify some of the other, more obscure things that can go wrong with wine.
Cork Taint
Ever wonder where all that restaurant wine presentation tradition came from? All that cork sniffing and tasting is designed to identify tainted bottles. Wines that have been damaged by cork taint can leave a wine smelling and tasting like moldy cardboard. Corked wine is a BIG problem. Cork taint is caused by a chemical called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, "TCA" for short. TCA arises from the molds on natural corks when chlorine is used to bleach and sanitize them. TCA is harmless but has a potent, musty, moldy smell and can give the wine a bitter taste. Concentrations of TCA as low as three parts per trillion can taint a wine!
So, what do you do when you get a corked bottle? First, make sure it is really corked. Many French and Italian wines have a pronounced earthiness, often with barnyard-y aromas. Tainted wine can range from an absence of fruit that leaves the wine muted to undrinkable corked wine that reeks of moldy cardboard. The moldy cardboard is easy. In a restaurant, simply tell the server that the wine is corked and send it back. At home, pour it back into the bottle and return it to your wine merchant.
Cooked
If you see evidence of a cork bulging up or signs of leakage from beneath the foil, don't buy the wine or let a waiter open it. It's been "cooked" (overheated wine expands and pushes out and around the cork) and will likely taste flat and fruitless. And remember, even an hour in a closed car on a warm day can cook a wine, and we don't accept returns on cooked wine.
Oxidized
If you have a white wine that looks just a little too golden or a red wine in a current vintage that is more brown than red and smells like Sherry, it's oxidized by a faulty closure that leaked air.
Reduced
Sulfur, lit match, burnt rubber, or rotten egg aromas are caused by the wine not being exposed to enough air during winemaking. Try decanting it; many times, it will blow off. This can also be caused by the use of too much sulfur dioxide during winemaking.
Brett
If your wine has the aromas of a horse stable, locker room, or band-aids, it has Brettanomyces, a naturally occurring yeast that sometimes taints a barrel. Today, it is rare, thanks to the advent of modern winemaking, but I know Frenchmen who miss it because that's what most Rhône wine smelled like 40 years ago. Even today, many wine reviewers don't consider it a fault in small doses.
Too Old
Flat flavors, lack of aromas, a golden color in whites, and an orange ring around the edge of the glass with reds mean you waited too long to open the bottle. This goes back to my instinct that more wine is ruined in wine cellars than preserved.
Bottle Shock
Flat flavors or lack of aroma in a young wine may indicate bottle shock. Last year, we received 15 cases of a Robert Parker 94-Point Spanish red, and it was dead on arrival, completely flat with no nose. We took it home and decanted it for over an hour, and it came around to the point where we thought it was pretty good. I called the distributor and discovered that the container had landed the day before, so the wine has been on a boat, a train, and a truck continuously for the last five weeks. We quarantined it for two weeks, and it came around beautifully.
Volatile Acidity
This contamination can manifest itself as anything from a vinegar aroma to a strong aroma of acetone. I have had a few wines that were so bad you would swear someone had put fingernail polish remover in the bottle. It can happen at any time, and depending on when and how it does, it can ruin your wine.
January 3, 2024
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