Have you ever put your nose in a glass of wine expecting to get a lovely fruity
bouquet only to be greeted with musty cardboard, rotten eggs, or barnyard odours?
Welcome to the wonderful world of wine faults! In the next couple of minutes I'm
going to be explaining how and why wines go bad and how to detect faulty wines so stick around.
Hey everyone. I'm wine expert, Jacky Blisson. If you want to learn more about wine
in short weekly videos you have come to the right place.
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This is when unpleasant odours and tastes mask the usual fragrance and flavours
of a wine making it unpalatable, and in extreme cases, undrinkable.
just like you and me
wine is in constant evolution throughout its lifespan. Our health can
suffer when we're exposed to bacterial infections or viruses. Similarly, wine
quality can be compromised when exposed to excessive or insufficient amounts of
oxygen, spoilage yeasts, bacteria or molds.
Wine faults can be detected by
smelling and tasting the wine. Each wine fault has its own signature appearance,
odour and taste. Let's run down a quick list of the major flaws in wine.
OXIDATION
A wine is oxidized when it's become exposed to too much oxygen.
An oxidized wine will lose its freshness and its fruitiness and become quite dull
or flat to the taste. Quite quickly it'll take on a brownish hue and over time can
take on nutty almost sour aromas and flavors. Watch out for this flaw in
restaurant by-the-glass wines. Some wines can stay fresh for up to 5 days but
if you're paying for a wine I don't think they should serve you a bottle that's
been open for really longer than 2, maybe 3 days. If you have any doubts, send it back!
VOLATILE ACIDITY
If you're smelling nail polish remover or vinegar on a wine,
volatile acidity is the culprit! This occurs when acetobacter - the bacteria
that's used in vinegar production - contaminates wine and converts its
alcohol (the ethanol) into acetic acid bacteria. Acetobacter thrives in
oxygen-rich environment so again this is a flaw related to overexposure to oxygen.
Be careful how you store your wines at home. Always keep the bottles on their
side. Upright bottles - with natural corks - the cork can dry out and shrink over
time allowing excess oxygen in.
REDUCTION
When people refer to a wine as being reduced, what they actually mean is that volatile sulfur compounds
(called mercaptans) have formed. This can happen when a wine is starved of oxygen.
Wine is a very picky beast when it comes to oxygen! It doesn't like too much but
it doesn't like too little either. A wine that's reduced will have a really
unpleasant odour ranging from burnt rubber, to cooked cabbage, to rotten eggs.
Sometimes if you just leave the wine in the glass for a while, maybe swirling
around to maximize oxygen exposure, these unpleasant odours can blow off, but
unfortunately these stinky smells are often pretty persistent.
CORK TAINT
A wine is described as corked when it's been contaminated by a mold compound
that is found in a very small percentage of natural corks and in other equipment
in the winery. Suffice it to say cork taint is unmistakable. It'll smell like
wet newspaper or sort of musty cardboard that's been left in a damp cellar for a
long time. If you have a doubt about a musty smell on a wine, send it back!
BRETTANOMYCES
or Brett, as wine geeks lovingly or loathingly refer to it, is
a strain of errant yeast cell that can give really interesting aromas that add
complexity at low levels (like spice or leather notes), but at higher levels they
mask all other aromas and flavors giving off this really pungent sweaty saddle,
barn yard, manure type smell. Highly contaminated wines will be really lean
and angular on the palate. How much or how little brett you like in your wine is
entirely personal
Take it back to the store for a refund, or if you're in a restaurant, ask the
waiter to replace the bottle. Never feel shy or rude about doing this. If you have
a doubt, send it back. As always thanks so much for watching! If you like this video
please feel free to share, to comment, to give me a little thumbs up, and of course
to subscribe to my channel. Join me next week for another wine 101, and until then
Santé!