Have you ever wondered what you are supposed to do what to when the restaurant waiter, or the sommelier if you're moving up in the world, pours you a taste? It's simple; it's so you can send back if it's faulty. The problem is how do you know when a wine is faulty? Here we describe the most common faults with wine.
| FAULTS |
SYMPTOM |
TASTE |
REASON |
| Corked Wine |
Aromas of wet cardboard, mushrooms, mould and smelly socks. |
Would taste same as the aroma, would lack fruit and if often quite bitter. |
When wine comes in contact with a cork infected with a FU that produces 1,2,4-trichloroanisole (TCA) |
| Cooked Wine |
The top of the cork doesn't sit flush with the mouth of the bottle. The capsule doesn't turn freely around the neck of the bottle. |
Would taste as if it's been cooked. There would be no freshness to the fruit flavours (stewed, prune-like profile). On the palate, the wine often seems thin, lacking body and character. |
Exposure of wine to high temperatures due to poor storage conditions. This results into the expansion of the wine forcing the cork out of the bottle or leaking of the wine around the cork. In either case when the wine cools and contracts it results into air seeping in around the cork leading to oxidation. |
| Oxidation |
Not visible |
Miniscule amounts of air seeping past the cork over time. |
| Sulphur |
Aroma of mothballs, burnt matches or burnt rubber |
Leaves a sour taste at the back of the throat. |
An excessive amount of sulphur, a commonly used preservative, will produce fairly characteristic aromas and flavours. |
| Sediments and crystals |
Tiny particles suspended at the bottom. |
Unpleasant if taken into the mouth, particularly if large when they may be mistaken for shards of glass. |
If kept in a cold cellar the tartrate crystals (especially potassium hydrogen tartrate) form in the bottle mostly found adherent to the underside of the cork or in free suspension. |
