WINE EDUCATION WITH MR. BILL >>
You’ve had this wine before. You like it. Well you thought you did, but now you’re not so sure. That delicious fruit quality you love so much in this wine is not there. Yep, same wine. It’s even the same vintage as last time. Are your taste buds playing a game on you? That can happen due to various reasons. (Food you just ate, a cold, that other C word I won’t even mention, even mood, and other causes)
But sometimes the culprit is wine taint. There are various causes and it can happen to any bottle. One of the most likely causes is TCA. The full name is 2,4,6-trichloroanisole. Yep, that’s why we just say TCA. In minute parts per trillion it can have a profound, negative effect on wine. Ever notice a damp basement, musty sort of smell in a wine. That fruit you love in the wine is just barely there. Good chance TCA claimed this wine. Maybe 10 parts per trillion. Really? Damn. It won’t hurt you. It will piss off your taste buds though. Sorry, but this bottle has to go. Grab another. Your favorite wine shop will replace it and then they’ll get the distributor to replace it for them.
TCA usually gets to the wine via the cork used to seal the bottle. It has been known to affect wines in the winery before bottling but that’s more rare. Screw caps, synthetic corks, and other closures are usually safe bets there will be no TCA in that bottle.
Another culprit is oxidation. All wine needs a certain amount of oxygen interaction prior to being bottled. After opening some wines benefit from a little aeration just to open up. Too much air at any point is not good. One of the main causes of this (other than leaving your bottle out and open too long. Shame!) is synthetic corks. They do perform better now than years ago, but they generally don’t provide as good of a seal as real cork or screw caps. Don’t shy form buying wine with these corks, just make sure it hasn’t been sitting around too long. Don’t you let it sit too long either.
One more to mention here. Heat. We work hard to make sure the wine we receive has been taken care of before we take it. We protect it. Remember the derecho? The store lost power for one day. Mandy and Snug, in order to protect all the inventory, took it all to the basement in his house. Folks, that was a monumental task. But we all knew the wine was safe in so doing. Don’t leave it sitting in your hot car. Just don’t.
There are other causes but these are the most common. Check with us anytime you’re not sure. As always, our goal is to make sure you get the right bottle of wine. One that matches your preferences. We want to be sure if it has some issue that we fix it rather than you just think that winery makes bad wine.
Cheers!