Finding fault with a wine is a snob’s dream. I remember one incident a few years ago, when a friend of mine, who had recently entered the wine trade, obviously wanted to impress his female dining companion and make his mark as a man who knew a thing or two about wine. It was the second bottle of an Italian red we had ordered and although, I have to admit, it did smell a little earthy, it was by no means corked. Undeterred, my friend insisted on calling over the sommelier.
Much theatrical posturing ensued in which the sommelier flamboyantly sniffed the cork before pouring himself a tasting measure of the wine in question and, after tasting, confidently declared to the table: “This is not corked.” I had to agree but took no pleasure in watching my friend’s expression crumple. I can’t remember whether he actually brought himself to drink the aforementioned bottle, but I do recall enjoying the wine very much.
The problem with identifying wine faults such as cork taint, oxidation, sediment and tartrate crystals or brettanomyces (a subject I will return to later) is that more often than not there is no fault with the wine at all. It just doesn’t taste quite how the drinker expected it to. Take our “earthy” Italian wine. If one is used to a softer, approachable, supple form of wine such as an Australian Merlot instead of the bitter, tannic and dry flavor of an Italian grape variety such as Nebbiolo, then naturally the Italian wine can come as a bit of a shock to the palate.
Similarly, when a wine is served with small pieces of cork floating inside the glass, it isn’t actually corked, it is just that the cork has crumbled and fallen into the glass. These may seem basic rules to some but I wager right now there is someone beckoning the sommelier over, arguing that there are small bits floating on his wine and he will under no circumstances drink “corked wine.”
So how does one identify corked wine? Firstly, it is worth pointing out that in the U.K. this is becoming less of a problem as more wine producers are reverting to screwcaps. Unfortunately for those wines bottled with a cork, there are still corks that are contaminated with TCA, a chemical compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole that gives the wine an unmistakable pungent, mouldy odor.
By far a more common fault, in my experience, is the wine that has been ruined through oxidation. This is when a small amount of air has seeped in through the cork, leaving the wine smelling “sherried” or without any discernible fruit characteristics. Rarer these days, but still prevalent in some wines, is the occurrence of opening a bottle to find it is “off,” displaying a foul-smelling nose. When I worked in the wine trade a few years back, I learned that this was because of the wine being contaminated by bacteria left over in the winery.
Sediment collected at the bottom of a wine glass can be unpleasant to drink but is entirely natural and expected in wines that are aged. Decanting the wine should avoid this experience. Small tartrate crystals that appear in white wine are also nothing to worry about; they form naturally in the winemaking process.
One fault beloved of wine snobs is that of “brett,” or brettanomyces, to give it its full name. Hugely controversial, brett is a yeast that imparts a distinctive flavor to a wine, best described in my experience as a sort of smoky bacon flavor. It is found predominantly in red Bordeaux, and for many the taste actually improves the wine, adding complexity and character. Those who don’t like the taste, and there are many, often say that it is a result of bad winemaking.
But as Master of Wine Anthony Barne says: “It is a taste that is almost endemic in older clarets and one we all came to know and love as part of the taste of red Bordeaux.
“If you go back 20 years, it was really the Australians who were perhaps more scientific winemakers then the Bordelais were in general. They had identified brett as what they considered to be a wine fault, and then they were finding it in a lot of clarets and were always looking for an angle as to why Australian wines were superior to French wines. But unless it is really strong, I don’t see it as a huge problem, I must say.”
A view echoed by Simon Staples, sales director at Berry Bros. & Rudd wine merchants, who says, “It’s a fault I rarely come across and if I had to be honest, if you mention it, I don’t think most people know what you are talking about.” Which is precisely why the wine snobs love it so much.
By: Will Lyons [The Wall Street Journal 8/20/10]
