Life is too short to drink flawed wine.
But most of us have consumed our fair share of tainted wine. The key is knowing what to look for upon opening your wine. The three most common flaws are cork taint (caused by a fungus called trichloroanisole), oxidation and maderization.
Have you ever experienced that awkward moment when your food server elegantly opens your bottle of wine, places the cork before you and pours a taste into your glass?
Most of us sip the wine nervously and are all too quick to approve it. First and foremost, inspect the cork visually – don’t smell it. The idea that you can learn something about a wine by smelling the cork is a fallacy.
Assess the general condition of the cork. If you see a bloodline (a visible line of red wine) running the length of the cork, this is an indication that air could have been leaking in and the wine could have been prematurely oxidized, which, in extreme cases, turns it into vinegar.
A bloodline does not always indicate a flawed wine, but it can be a warning sign. Really though, this is where it is all about smell. Swirl the wine and take a gentle whiff. If you smell fruit such as blackberries, plums or cherries for reds or tropical fruits, grapefruit, pears and apples for whites, then you know the wine is not flawed by oxidation, trichloroanisole or maderization.
Taste to confirm. If you aren’t sure, ask the sommelier to approve it for you. Never feel bad about refusing a bottle. Most restaurants and retailers receive credit from their distributors.
The most common wine flaw is caused by trichloroanisole, or TCA. Sadly, this fungus affects about 7 percent of traditional cork-sealed wines. Descriptors that indicate TCA include “wet cardboard” or “musty basement,” and these wines are referred to as “corked.” The harmless fungus occurs naturally and is typically found in corks and wood products such as oak barrels, staves and chips.
Oxidation, another common flaw that can occur easily in our dry climate, typically happens when the cork dries out and shrinks, allowing wine to seep out and air to seep in. Always be sure to store bottles on their sides to keep the corks moist, ideally in a dark, cool place.
Maderization is a third common flaw that, ironically, gets its name from one of the great fortified dessert wines. Madeira comes from the island of Madeira off the coast of Morocco and is made by cooking the wine. Initially, this occurred when wine was transported overseas in the hulls of ships, where, during the warmer months, it was being cooked en route. Over time, this became the desired style for this particular dessert wine, but not so for table wines.
Good indications of maderization are a cork that protrudes from the top of the bottle and wine with a brown hue. Madeirization is still prevalent in wines that are shipped across the ocean or driven cross-country in unrefrigerated trucks. Refrain from storing wine above your refrigerator or in direct sunlight because this will only facilitate maderization.
A personal word of advice – if you have only one wine in the house, it’s smart to make sure it’s a screw cap. Nothing is worse than coming home from a long day only to discover your last bottle of wine is corked, oxidized or maderized. Just sayin’…
Alan Cuenca is an accredited oenophile and owner of Put a Cork in It, a Durango wine store. Reach him at info@putacorkinit.org.
