I used to always smell the cork when a waiter would open up a bottle of wine. My husband made fun of me and said that that is not an indicator of whether or not the wine is any good. I thought that it was some kind of tradition or something....Anyone know about it...??
It may be "tradition" but it doesn't tell you much at all. You're better off smelling the wine.
I had one of my _own_ wines a couple of months ago that had a smelly cork. The wine was bad all right. Funny thing is, I was not accustomed to smelling the cork, but now I do. I'd always heard that one should _squeeze_ the cork of a wine of uncertain provenance to see if liquid oozes out. That's supposed to be a sign that the bottle had been stored lying down.
Storing bottles vertically would make decanting an older wine a more spontaneous event, wouldn't it?
Tom S
Ahhh, smelling the cork.... well it smells like cork. The real reason the cork is offered is the following:
Back in the day the peasant use to go into the cellars and steal the good wine and replace it with not so good wine. They would replace the cork with another. So... if you notice to this day the majority of all wine corks are stamped with the company and possible the vintage. The majority of higher end wine offer the vintage year.
This was cork was really offered for you not to sniff, but to authenticate the wine. This is done by matching the brand name from the cork and possible the year that is stamped on the cork to that of the bottle.
Plan and simple. If you want to see if a wine is bad, smell it and taste it. The majority of faults are in the nose.
So next time look but do not smell.
Gord
Nope. I always wondered why decanting starting from an angle position (i.e. pulling the cork from the bottle resting in a decanting basket) never has been more popular; that's the way I handle it, and it can be done as spontaneously as imaginable.
M.
I've seen a lot of wines from my cellar with fairly dry corks, but I live in a dry climate (basement humidity 50 - 60 %). At least the bottom of the corks should be moist, if the bottle has been lying down. For some reason, the corks from the New World seem to be drier than those from Europe.
Tom Schellberg
Tom, One factor may be that most New World corks are waxed, whereas many of the corks from Europe do not appear to have been coated with wax. Others may know more about this than I do.
Mark Lipton
Would it be as spontaneous as having every bottle in your cellar stored upright, with the sediment already in the bottom? I think that's the situation Tom S envisioned.
- Mark W.
Definitely yes. That's what I was trying to explain: There is *no need* at all to stand up any bottle prior to decanting.
M.
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