Have you ever had a bad wine? I’m not referring to a wine that just didn’t strike your fancy. I’m talking about honest-to-goodness bad wine. I sure have. I’ve had lots of them.There are several reasons why a wine may go bad. When you get a bad wine at a restaurant or in a store, the most common reasons are poor handling, a bad cork or a contaminated bottle. At home, the most common reason for bad bottles is waiting too long to drink your wine.
In this column, we’ll talk about what can make a wine go bad, what you should do when it isn’t your fault, and how you can minimize the times when it is your fault.
First, let’s explore the most common defects found in wine:
● “Corked” wine – When wine experts refer to a wine as being “corked,” they typically mean that it has been spoiled by the presence of 2,4,6 trichloroanisole (“TCA”). TCA usually results when a naturally occurring fungus comes in contract with chlorophenol. TCA in wine usually comes from a cork that is contaminated with chlorophenol, which is found in some pesticides and can also be the result of the chlorine bleaching used to sterilize cork. It’s ironic that the very chemicals used to prevent contaminated cork sometimes end up ruining the wine it was supposed to protect! A bad case of TCA is easy to spot – its smells like moldy cardboard, a wet dog or a damp basement. TCA, which gets worse as wine ages, is primarily a flaw in winemaking and not in handling or storage.
