Here’s Some More Wine Faults to be Aware of…
There’s nothing more frustrating or disappointing when you open one of your prized wines in front of your friends or family during a dinner party, and for whatever reason, the wine just isn’t right.
And you can almost guarantee it’ll happen when you’ve just spent the previous five minutes telling everyone how bloody good it was when you last tried it, how you’ve been keeping it for the past five years specially for an occasion like this and how it’s going to blow them away. Pah!
It can be anything from the wine being corked to smelling either of rotting vegetables or dodgy drains. Or it might just be going through a ‘sleep’ phase, which isn’t actually a fault and is impossible to predict, but we’re not concerned with this one right now.
So other than cork taint and oxidisation, which I’ve covered in separate articles, what are the other main wine faults to look out for and are there any cures?
Reduction – sulphurous aromas
If you open a bottle and you get that awful waft of rotten eggs or bad drains, this is the tell-tale sign of reduction. The opposite to oxidisation, reduction occurs when the wine hasn’t been exposed to enough oxygen, mainly during the winemaking process, so the naturally-occurring volatile sulphur compounds in the wine take over.
A mild case of reduction gives a faint smoky aroma/taste, a bit like a burnt match, and is actually considered by some to be complimentary, so it’s not altogether bad.
Mild reduction can be resolved by decanting the wine to allow it to oxygenate, or by stirring the wine with a silver spoon.
Exposure to heat (aka maderisation)
Before you think about shoving your wine collection in the loft or in a garage or shed that heats up in the summer, think again. Now this might sound obvious but you’d be surprised how easy it can be when you’re strapped for space indoors and you don’t have the luxury of a cellar or a large empty understairs storage cupboard. So if you’re like me, you’re constantly playing ‘musical wine’ every six months! Yep, it’s a pain in the ar$e.
If you do happen to forget about your wine and it receives continued exposure to heat for several months, you can expect two things to happen. Firstly, the volume of wine expands in the bottle and can force the cork out which then leads to seepage and oxidisation. Secondly, it slowly cooks or maderises the wine, which can give flavours like processed jam or even nutty caramel. Not great.
In Madeira, this heating process, known as maderisation, is actually encouraged but it’s definitely an unpleasant fault in table wine.
Secondary fermentation
Have you ever opened a bottle of still wine and heard a little hiss as the cork is drawn or screw cap comes loose? Take a quick sniff. If you can smell a yeast-like aroma, this is a sure sign of secondary fermentation. It usually means some residual sugar has got mixed in with the wine at bottling and then started fermenting again when it’s hit a certain temperature.
It’s worth noting that this can also be a deliberate side-effect in low-intervention wines where little or no sulphur has been used for stabilisation, especially in light, juicy reds.
Cowsheds and crystals!
Before you think I’m going off on a complete tangent, please bear with. In most cases these last two encounters aren’t really problematic and as such aren’t considered serious wine faults, nonetheless it’s good to be aware of them.
Farmyard aromas are generally found in red wines, especially from some of the old artisan producers in France, and in low doses are considered ‘acceptable’ as they add complexity to the wine. This is the presence of a wild ‘spoilage’ yeast called Brettanomyces or ‘Brett’ for short. This is generally linked to poor cellar hygiene and too much Brett is overpowering and can be seriously off-putting.
It’s not uncommon to see tiny crystals in your wine, especially if the wine’s been subjected to really cold temperatures for a prolonged period.
These are called tartrates and are harmless mineral deposits that form in unfiltered wines with a high mineral content. They don’t affect the taste of the wine at all and simply need careful decanting or being passed through a sieve.
A clue to the presence of tartrate crystals in the wine is finding them on the underside of the cork.
Next time you encounter a wine that doesn’t quite seem right, this handy reference along with the additional articles on corked wines and oxidised wines should help identify the possible cause. And perhaps more importantly, whether or not you can overcome it.
