04/02/08 Travel

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Yesterday I gave you a couple of reasons why a wine might not smell very good. So today I will give you a few ideas about what a bad wine might smell like. One of the most common foul smells in a wine happens when the cork is bad. This is a very good reason to look at alternative closures for wines. What is happening is the cork which is the bark of a tree is harboring a certain type of fungus. That fungus is smelly and when it comes into contact with our wine really sinks in. I found out that TCA this condition or smell created by the cork has the potency of a skunk meaning that just one or two parts per trillion is detectable by most everyone. The smell that permeates the wine is likened to wet cardboard or composting leaves. It is not the smell of a good wine. It takes away the smells of the fruit and replaces it with this odor. Unfortunately it can be in one out of every ten to twelve bottles and there is nothing you can do about it other than return it to wherever you bought it and get a new bottle. This is really okay to do the wineries do not want you to drink it and they really don't want you to think that is what their wine is all about. So if your wine smells bad in any way, there is likely something wrong. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at Vine to Wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.