Finding Wine Flaws
   03/16/2017 08:59:55    0 Comments
Finding Wine Flaws
Dear Reader

The waiter pours—everyone goes quiet—all eyes on you—a bead of sweat bursts from your forehead … and regardless of what you think you say:

“Yip, all good”

Don’t worry … it is a tough job picking up a flaw in wine, but here is a very quick guide and what to do:
  • Corked, smells like wet cardboard, newspaper and wet dog. Dump it.
  • Too Tight, no aromas or flavour. Drink it, but perhaps wait a day and hopefully it will “open up”.
  • Too Old, smells like wet mushrooms, feels hollow and one dimensional. Dump it.
  • Oxidised, whites smell like spoilt butterscotch & reds like a stock cube. Dump it, if it just has a tinge, try it, if you like it drink it.
  • Reduced, smells like sulphur, it is the opposite to oxidised, it hasn’t been exposed to enough air during winemaking. Could decant it with a copper coin as copper kills the stinky compound, but otherwise dump it.
  • Sulphur Spoil, smells like a bad egg, same treatment as above, but otherwise dump it.
  • Brett, smells like a horse stable/band-aid. Not bad in small quantities, but if it is all you pick up dump it.
  • Volatile Acidity, smells like nail polish remover. Dump it.
These are all faults our panel can pick up very easily, but then again, they do blind taste over 2000 wines a year. Don’t beat yourself up about it if you can’t pick it up and remember some people are more sensitive to it than others. If you like it, drink it, simple as that.

I have put these fantastic Autumn Mixed Cases together for you. Fault Free ;).

Kind regards, 





    

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