Wine, don't hurt: how to understand that something is wrong with wine, and how to fix it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Expecting the scent of a raspberry garden, but getting the smell of a damp cellar? Alas, the wine is "sick". We will tell you how to fix some flaws and what you need to know in order to choose a quality drink.

Wine is like art. There is a lot of subjectiveness in it, and the last argument “for” or “against” will always be “like / dislike”. But there are also objective parameters for assessing the quality of a noble drink. If you are confused by the smell of wine or an unusual taste, then it is quite possible that you have come across a sample with a defect. There are several life hacks to help you recognize the flaws of wine from the first sip. We will tell you how to diagnose a bottle and insure yourself against buying a spoiled drink in the future, even if you are new to the wine world.

1. "Cork disease"

Symptoms: wine has an unpleasant, pungent odor, reminiscent of wet cardboard or dog hair. If you feel "doggy" or "damp cellar" - these are not the rich shades of the original complex wine. It didn't seem to you that the wine is sick.

What to do

Pour the wine into the sink - alas, it can no longer be saved. Between 1% and 7% of all wine in the world, clogged with cork, is contaminated with “Cork taint” responsible compounds. Determination of haloanisoles and halophenols in cork matrix: A review by specific cork bacteria. If you don’t want to participate in the lottery, buy wine with a screw cap, there is simply no place for such bacteria to come from.

2. Reduction, or "hydrogen sulfide bouquet"

Symptoms: the wine smells like boiled cabbage, garlic or a rotten egg.

What to do

This case is not at all hopeless. This smell appears if the wine lacked oxygen and the yeast began to release thiols - organic sulfur compounds. You can improve the smell with aeration - oxygenation of the wine.

Pour the wine into a decanter (a process called decantation) and let the drink breathe until the smell has dissipated. Not ready to wait a few hours? Stir the wine with a silver spoon or dip a clean copper coin into the decanter to precipitate the sulfur compounds.

3. The wine was made from unripe grapes

Symptoms: The wine smells like cat urine, grass and green capsicum.

What to do

The patient is more dead than alive. Unfortunately, if the wine is made from low-quality raw materials, "medicine" is powerless. This usually happens if, for example, the weather conditions did not allow the grapes to ripen and gain all the necessary qualities, but the winemaker decided to start production anyway.

Well-known manufacturers who value their name do not allow themselves this. So choose wines from trusted brands to avoid this defect.

4. Wine turns into vinegar

Symptoms: the wine smells like vinegar or acetone, nail polish remover.

What to do

Only Jesus knew how to turn water into wine, and no one can turn vinegar into wine. The most you can count on with such a bottle is to use the wine for culinary purposes.

We are used to hearing that wine only gets better over the years, but this is only true for noble complex wines with great storage potential. Simple inexpensive wines “for every day” should be drunk, as they say, here and now: white wines are best consumed in the first two years, red ones should not be stored longer than 3-5 years. So, if you see a 2011 Sauvignon Blanc for 800 rubles in a regular chain store, then leave it on the shelf.

5. "Sunstroke"

Symptoms: the wine smells like dust and cardboard.

What to do

A light but perceptible smell of dust, clogging the natural aromas of wine, appears if it has been stored for a long time in bright light or even in the sun. Whether or not to drink such wine is up to you (we would not).

When choosing wine in a regular store, always pay attention to the storage conditions. If the bottles are right under the lamps or the room is too hot, then it is better to look for another place for wine shopping.

6. "Heat stroke"

Symptoms: the wine smells like caramel and baked fruit, but there is no pronounced taste and aftertaste. The drink has a brownish tint.

What to do

Wine starts to spoil at temperatures above 28 ° C. Therefore, if air conditioners do not work in the store in summer or the premises are heated too hard in winter, then it is better not to buy wine there: it almost certainly suffered from "heatstroke", and there is nothing to fix the defects.

7. Oxidase cass, or browning of wine

Symptoms: the wine acquires a brownish tint and a faint smell of Madeira, hazelnuts and rotten apples. Red wine acquires a dry, bitter taste, while white wine vaguely resembles apple cider.

What to do

This defect occurs at the production stage and, unfortunately, cannot be corrected in any way. In the skins of rotten or moldy grapes, oxidative enzymes, oxidases, are actively produced. If a large amount of rotten grapes goes into production, then when the finished wine comes into contact with oxygen, an oxidation process occurs and the drink changes its properties.

8. Secondary fermentation of wine

Symptoms: the wine looks cloudy and has bubbles in it.

What to do

Bubbles are the norm for sparkling wines, and should not be present in ordinary still wines. The defect most often occurs in young red wines, which are bottled with a small amount of residual sugar, and the fermentation process involuntarily starts over. This cannot be fixed, but the defect is easy to detect: inspect the bottle in bright light, bubbles will be noticeable.