What’s up?

What it’s (probably) called

What it’s about, what to do

“It’s a bit stinky”

Reductive

Sometimes a wine can give a whiff of rotten eggs or be a bit farty, particularly after first opening the bottle. Sometimes when a wine is starved of oxygen and/or sulphur is used things can get a little bit off-balance. Fortunately it’s harmless and actually usually fixable, simply decant the wine (even into another clean bottle or water jug or whatever) and let sit for a bit. Or if it’s faint, even just a bit of a wait and a swirl in the glass will “burn” it off. If you’re really put off just follow the advice above and let us know and we’ll resolve it with you.

“It tastes like vinegar”

Volatile Acidity (or VA as it’s known on the street)

Probably the most common fault, and also the most tricky to draw a line under as it’s a common character used and even desired in certain winemaking. 

Usually, if it’s really a wine that carries VA with a badge of pride, it will be in the wine description or tasting notes telling you this. Or hopefully our store staff let you know as you browse and discuss options. 

Often this comes from either deliberate use of oxygen/oxidation or sometimes accidental invasion. When deliberately done, and with deft touch, it can be one of a bunch of defining features. However, usually if it’s dominating the wine and you can barely taste or smell anything but nail polish remover something is definitely up. 

Some wines feature oxidation as a dominant character, particularly from Jura (France) and Jerez (Spain) and others who make wines in similar styles where flor (microbial layer over the wine in the barrel) is used. It often adds a nutty or caramel quality. But again if that’s the case we’ll try to let you know beforehand.

“It tastes a bit funny after I drink it”

Mousieness, Brettanomyces (brett) 

Another tricky one. Generally, more present in high acid, high solid wines and more often barrel fermented reds but can be in whites too. Brett is a type of yeast and is naturally present on skins of all sorts of fruit. At low level it is often desirable in wine but at higher levels can taste or smell like a barn or sweaty horse saddle or... caged mice and can linger at the back of the palate. And not everyone can even taste it (including winemakers) then others are super sensitive to it. It’s a tricky one… but if it’s there, then it’s there and there isn’t much that can be done about it (so there!). Nah seriously though, if you think something is up, just follow the steps above and let us know.

“This wine tastes/smells like!… not much” and/or “...mould, wet dog, wet cardboard”

It’s (maybe) corked!

or its simply 'out of condition'

It can be slight, where it just skims off the vibrancy of smell or flavour - tricky to detect unless you are really familiar with the wine (you may just think it’s a bit lamo).

Or it can be full-blown-rotten corked! Where it smells/tastes like musty, wet dog, mould or commonly wet cardboard. Plus the above lameness. 

This actually, as the name suggests, often comes from something suss with the cork itself. Often through a type of microscopic mould that loves cork. And although, there has been heaps of recent efforts to reduce it’s prevalence in the last 15 or so years it still affects approximately 1-in-25 bottles of wine. But usually, affects just a particular unlucky bottle, not the whole batch so can often be exchanged and all good. Unless there is a larger issue at the winery (bad storage etc) but that would often be picked up before the wine got to you.

As the name suggests, this just affects bottles with cork. So that one easy way to avoid it is to buy wine without cork… and one of the main reasons Australian and New Zealand wine (and other new world regions) often doesn't use cork. But then corks are apparently sexy so...

A wine may also be underwhelming and taste unimpressive if it's simply past its best (in other words old or over-aged). Yes, many of the great wines age well and can benefit from cellaring (in the right conditions) for years or even decades. However, all wines, even the very best, have a time of optimum drinking. And if a wine is drunk after this point generally it could be underwhelming and dissappointing. Unfortunately, this is not a fault with the wine. It's either bad luck, timing or cellaring, or a mixture of all three. We will rarely, if ever, stock wine that isn't drinking great and will give you an indication of cellaring potential if that's what you're looking for. But even when we do advise further ageing, we can't be responsible for the cellaring conditions which also significantly affects a wines ability to beneficially age.

If a wine for sale doesn't display/articulate a cellaring potential then it should be drunk within a year of purchase, if not sooner.  If there is the possibility that a wine is at it's peak and should not be cellared we will advise you.