If you’ve ever used cream of tartar in a cake recipe, you’ve baked with the same material as those jagged crystals on the bottom of your bottle or cork. Cause No, that’s not glass in your glass. Wine Diamonds Sign Crystals in the bottom of the bottle. No Cause for Concern Though often mistaken for wine faults, these common phenomenon are perfectly normal, and won’t harm the flavor of your wine. If a wine has been cooked enough to notice, use it as braising liquid instead. This can happen anywhere: a hot dock during shipping, a sunny window in a store, a pizza restaurant that stores Chianti above the oven, or a car trunk in the summertime. A cork partially dislodged from the neck is a good indicator that heat has expanded the air inside. Cooked wines typically show signs of oxidation, too. Also known as maderization, for the process used to make Madeira, few wines can tolerate the treatment.
HARD WEST SECRET OF THE ROTTEN OAK SERIES
Prolonged exposure to heat or a series of temperature spikes can cook a wine. Taste for roasted, stewed or jammy reds with prune or raisin flavors, or whites that are brown, nutty and Sherry-like, and not in a tasty way. Oxidation presents itself in degrees of intensity, but if color, aroma and flavor loss are severe, consider making vinegar.ħ Wine Storage Tips to Keep You and Your Bottles Happy Looks like a pretty place to store your wine, but it’s getting cooked / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Cooked/Maderized Warning Signs In the case of Sherry, vin jaune and some white wines, those nutty flavors are deliberate. If a bottled wine is fresh off the shelf and still tastes oxidized, the problem probably started with the producer. Boxed wines have shorter shelf lives than bottles due to the high rate of oxygen exchange in the boxed bags. Always ask your bartender which day he or she opened that by-the-glass pour. It can begin during winemaking, storage or within hours of opening the bottle. Oxidation is a common consumer complaint. Look for ruddy, brownish whites that may smell of Sherry or cider, or brick-orange reds that seem flat and lifeless. One way to deal with oxidized wine / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Oxidation Warning Signs Fault Line: SubjectiveĪ bottle may be past its prime to one wine lover, but characterful to another. Many wine collectors pay a lot of money for that. Its color will fade from ruby to garnet, and the wine will swap primary fruit for tertiary flavor notes of tobacco and cedar. As an example, aged Bordeaux will soften and synergize. However, an appreciation for a bottle’s later life can also be subjective. Most wines aren’t built to age more than a few years, and even those that can will have ageability differences due to storage conditions. But if you save that treasure too long, it can extend past its optimal sipping point. It’s common to store an expensive or special bottle for a future occasion. Look for faded color, loss of personality, structure and freshness. Is your wine past its prime? / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Over-the-Hill (versus Mature) Warning Signs While cork taint isn’t physically harmful to drinkers, it can easily render a wine undrinkable. The rate of cork taint hovers around 3 percent globally, but many wine industry professionals argue it gets blamed far more frequently. Tasters may mistake mustiness for the forest-floor and mushroom notes called sous bois by the French, or confuse it for oxidation or other out-of-condition problems. TCA develops when the plant phenols from cork-tree bark are exposed to chlorine, a common sterilizer. It frequently derives from natural cork closures. TCA stands for 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, and it’s the chemical culprit behind “corked” wine. Sniff for dusty aromas of wet newspaper and damp basement, and dull, muted fruit. A corked wine will smell like wet newspaper / Illustration by Ryan McAmis Corked Wine Warning Signs
HARD WEST SECRET OF THE ROTTEN OAK PLUS
Here’s a guide to seven common wine faults, plus two situations you can happily ignore. Is your wine flawless, or flawed? Is what you taste an intentional style, or an accident of storage? The degree to which wine faults are considered problematic often lies in the nose (or palate) of the beholder, and it’s often hard to tell the difference.
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