Whose Fault Is It, Anyway??

We all know that taste is 80% smell.  You still remember the day you had a stuffy nose and nothing tasted good. You couldn’t taste much at all.  So, what is it when the aromas and flavors are off in a wine??  What does that mean??  Is it the wine’s fault, a bad bottle, or something else?  That is the question.

Here is the first rule of thumb in drinking wine.  Yes, it is a rule.  Before you pour that wine, smell the glass.  I mean that emphatically.  Today’s dishwashers are wonderful, yet they recycle water.  I have many times been put off by the stinky odors in a clean glass that was washed in the dishwasher.  It is a simple fix.  If you get anything other than a neutral aroma, simply rinse the glass with water.  Dry it with a towel specifically for crystal, if that is what you are using, to avoid scratching the glass.  Once that glass is neutral, then you can pour.

Another aspect to consider is how you smell.  Your fabulous sense of smell is driven by the olfactory cells located high up in your nose.  They are the workhorses of detecting aromas and directly transmit sensation to the brain. This is relevant, because it is important to ensure you send enough signals to these cells.  Usually folks will just take a short sniff.  That is okay, yet the best approach is to take a lesson from our furry friends the dog and the rabbit.  Watch them and see that they take several short sniffs to get the best impression of the fragrance.  I recommend that we practice that approach as well for the best impression and recognition of what’s in your wine glass.

Another way to train yourself to detect an off wine before you pour, is to smell the cork after you pull it.  Smell the end of the cork that has been in contact with the wine to be sure you do not have cork taint, which is the most common issue that winemakers face.  The culprit here is TCA – TCA stands for 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, and it’s the chemical culprit behind “corked” wine. The source of this fault is a mold that can affect the cork.  It can also be present in other materials in the winery.  The industry states that it is possible for 1-3% of the bottles to be affected.

If TCA is present, the wine will have the odor of a moldy basement.  It is not always front and center as the aroma.  What also plays into this is “recognition threshold.”  That, simply said, is the amount of the aroma given off for you to recognize it.  It is even possible that you may have had cork-tainted wine in the past and not even noticed. Individual sensitivity to cork taint varies quite widely. However, the taint can still affect your enjoyment of a wine, even if you are not aware of its presence. In lesser amounts, TCA can simply blunt aromas and flavors, making a wine seem muted and uninteresting.  

Using your nose to smell aromas that may be present in the glass or on the cork is a worthwhile endeavor to ensure that the bottle you are opening will be enjoyed. 

Enjoy!!