{"id":2088,"date":"2022-04-28T17:45:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T17:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2022-04-28T17:45:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T17:45:46","slug":"bad-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2088","title":{"rendered":"Bad Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rationale for wine tasting as an avocation is \u2013 of course \u2013 that you get a chance to try a lot of really good wines.\u00a0 Sometimes when we enter a winery\u2019s tasting room, we know we are going to taste something delicious or at least interesting.\u00a0 Often, when we\u2019re visiting a winery for the first time, we may not know what to expect, but we have every reason to be excited about trying something new.\u00a0 And a few times, we\u2019ve been disappointed with the wines we\u2019ve tasted.<\/p>\n

But there have been rare occasions when we\u2019ve been handed a glass of really bad wine.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the same as wine we didn\u2019t like.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about wine that has been poorly made, bottled or stored.<\/p>\n

The most common cause of spoilage is corked wine.\u00a0 This is not really the fault of the winemaker but rather of the company that sold corks to the winery.\u00a0 In growing or preparing the corks, a grower may have unintentionally introduced a chemical known scientifically as 2,4,6-trichloroanisole<\/em> (or more usefully, as TCA).\u00a0 From the moment that cork is put in the bottle, the wine in it will taste corked.<\/p>\n

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A wine testing lab.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of Cornell University.<\/em><\/p>\n

We were once at a winery that prides itself on their scientific approach to winemaking.\u00a0 We even got to see their lab where people in white coats were doing something that looked like high school chem lab to us.\u00a0 When they poured our first taste it was immediately apparent that the Chardonnay smelled and tasted like wet cardboard.\u00a0 (Some people say it\u2019s wet dog, but let\u2019s not go there.)\u00a0 The server was at first surprised and then abashed, but truly it was her fault.\u00a0 She should have tasted the wine first before pouring it.\u00a0 Maybe she did and didn\u2019t recognize that the bottle was spoiled, which is even worse.<\/p>\n

Consumers should be on the watch for cork taint.\u00a0 If you find it at a tasting room or at home, bring it to the winery\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Many corks have identifiers so that the winery can tell who had sold them the faulty corks.<\/p>\n

Another common fault in wines you might taste is called brettanomyces<\/em>, or brett.\u00a0 This is a type of yeast.\u00a0 Since yeasts are an essential ingredient in making wine, some funky yeasts are bound on occasion to sneak in.\u00a0 However, in some cases brett is considered a feature, not a flaw.\u00a0 This yeast produces an aroma and taste that is generally referred to as \u201cbarnyard\u201d in polite company.\u00a0 In rude company it\u2019s called\u2026well, never mind.\u00a0 There are some wine lovers who find a bit of this taste to be admirable, especially in Pinot Noirs from Burgundy in particular.<\/p>\n

For the record, we\u2019re not brett fans.\u00a0 A little is bad and even Burgundians know that a lot isn\u2019t good.\u00a0 If you find it in a bottle opened at a winery, bring it to management\u2019s attention right away.\u00a0 When it happens in a wine opened at home, a reputable wine seller should exchange a purchase.<\/p>\n

The point is not to play wine detective looking for bad bottles.\u00a0 They are rare enough that most people only rarely encounter one.\u00a0 We have seen some people who were evidently unaware of what bad wine smells and tastes like, finish a bottle and not understand why they didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why a sommelier takes a sip of our wine and let\u2019s us try it before serving it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no reason to drink bad wine…Life is too short !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rationale for wine tasting as an avocation is \u2013 of course \u2013 that you get a chance to try a lot of really good wines.\u00a0 Sometimes when we enter a winery\u2019s tasting room, we know we are going to taste something delicious or at least interesting.\u00a0 Often, when we\u2019re visiting a winery for the … Continue reading Bad Wine<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2090,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions\/2090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}