Uncommom Wine Flaws

Welcome to Vine to wine this is your host Linda Moran. After attending an event and being served a bad wine, I decided we are going to address some wine flaws beyond simple cork taint. Recently some friends served a bottle of wine at a party. It is a wine they are familiar with and when they tasted it, it just wasn't the same. But they couldn't put their finger on it. Now these are people who know what a corked bottle smells like and that just wasn't it. The wine was almost fizzy but not like champagne. If in fact this was the case it surprised me as that is a sign the wine had sugar and some amount of yeast or element still remaining after fermentation, which was causing a slight fermenting process in the bottle. In my experience this is an unusual occurrence. Another wine flaw is indicated when the wine has lost its fruit smell and flavor and the color is darker than normal, accompanied by a scent of sherry. That wine is oxidized. Now - If it smells like Madeira, it is wine that has probably been baked as a result of being stored in a place that was way too warm for wine. Those characteristics are referred to as maderized. This is also a less common flaw as most everyone knows that wine is fragile in this way and cannot be subject to warm temperatures. So those are a couple of considerations if the wine you normally enjoy just doesn't seem right to you. And thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.