Bad wine?

You've discovered what are known as "corked" wines. They are tainted with a contaminant called TCA, the origins of which are still debated (though all agree that typically the taint is borne by corks). Those who are sensitive to the presence of TCA (sensitivity varies widely in the populace) associate its smell with mold, mildew, wet cardboard, musty smells, etc. Unfortunately, the presence of TCA also results in a deadening of the flavors of the wine -- something that is noticeable to virtually everyone regardless of TCA sensitivity. Industry estimates place the occurence of "corked" bottles at between 5-10% of the cork-finished bottles sold. When in future you find a corked wine, either in a restaurant or in a bottle purchased at a store, return it as corked and you will almost certainly be given a replacement bottle free of charge.

HTH Mark Lipton

Sparky writes,

Very interesting question. Another poster identified TCA (an odorous chemical which causes musty smells), but I don't agree.

I think the answer is much, much simpler than that.

A winery is like a barnyard. As clean and new and sterile as it can be, it still reeks of mold (if the barrels are stored in dank tunnels), ethel acetate (the nail polish smell), some vinegar (acetic acid smells), and, depending upon what time of the year you visit, the off-gassing of by-products of either the alcoholic or malolactic fermentations.

The only time of the year a winery smells "sweet" is during the harvest fermentaion, when strong fruity odors float past nearby housing tracts and create this magic aroma of "something happening".

The rest of the time, the winery can be as dank and chilling as a tomb, or as clean as an underground bomb shelter.

I don't "buy" the TCA argument, that chlorites used in normal tank-cleaning hygiene are combining with degrading, moldy oak odors, to create an offensive, "corked wine" smell.

Winemakers today are too cognizant of their treasure to allow this to happen.

If you bought a wine which was bad, return it. I'll bet $500 on the cork against the winery environment.

---Bob

Bob, I offered that diagnosis on the basis of my personal experience. Back when I was still fairly new to fine wine, I began to notice a musty characteristic in some wines that I tried; when I thought about it, I realized that it reminded me of the smell of the winery facilities I'd visited (the barrels? something else? who knows?). In the end, I found that the smell I had noticed was what others referred to as "cork taint." In the OP's question, I saw this same scenario -- rightly or wrongly.

Actually, ethyl acetate is the smell of overripe peaches. Nail polish remover is slightly different, methyl ethyl ketone. Nail polish itself usually smells to me like methyl propionate, also closely related but sweeter smelling (IMO) than ethyl acetate.

I wasn't arguing cause and effect, Bob. As I said above, the two smells are (to me) reminiscent of one another. For that matter, I am still reminded of corked wine whenever I am around a large number of wine barrels, whether it be in Opus One's pristine facility or underneath the Feraud household in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. I also doubt that the source of what I'm smelling is TCA in those places, but who knows? I am very sensitive to it, after all. It is worth mentioning that I don't find the smell of barrels offensive in any way, whereas TCA I find tremendously offputting -- but perhaps it's just a matter of degree.

Some have argued that TCA results from the reaction of wood lignins with those chlorites used in cleaning, but the low incidence of winery-wide TCA contamination (a la BV's recent problem) argues against the widespread presence of TCA in winery facilities.

Reading this, I wonder if you haven't misread either the OP's post or my own. I wasn't arguing anything different from what you've just written. I just thought that he'd had a corked wine, which REMINDED him of the winery environment, but didn't result from it.

Mark Lipton