I took a client to a fairly upscale restaurant in my area this week. This
guy likes wine but is not a geek, so as we were both having seafood I
ordered a lower end white burg. When the waiter poured it seemed OK
initially, but after a few minutes I noticed the sherry-like flavor, and it
began to quickly fall apart. I mentioned this to the waiter; the steward
tasted it, immediately agreed with me and suggested that I make another
choice on the basis that the rest of the case was also probably damaged. I
did so, the new bottle was fine and that was the end of that.

But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not notice any
leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this type of damage to
happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are there other conditions that
cause a wine to oxidise?

--

Regards,
Dean Macinskas

Email address is a spam sink - please reply to group.
---
"There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers.
While the first two are more pleasant, the third is by far the more
certain."
- Baron Rothschild

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:30:00 GMT, "DPM" > wrote:

>I took a client to a fairly upscale restaurant in my area this week. This
>guy likes wine but is not a geek, so as we were both having seafood I
>ordered a lower end white burg. When the waiter poured it seemed OK
>initially, but after a few minutes I noticed the sherry-like flavor, and it
>began to quickly fall apart. I mentioned this to the waiter; the steward
>tasted it, immediately agreed with me and suggested that I make another
>choice on the basis that the rest of the case was also probably damaged. I
>did so, the new bottle was fine and that was the end of that.
>
>But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not notice any
>leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this type of damage to
>happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are there other conditions that
>cause a wine to oxidise?

I'd go with heat damage, and the quick acceptance by the steward and
suggestion that the rest of the case was probably damaged as well
indicates that he probably is aware of either a storage or a
provenance problem.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com

DPM wrote:

> But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not notice any
> leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this type of damage to
> happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are there other conditions that
> cause a wine to oxidise?
>

Exposure to heat during its travels is by far the most likely
explanation, but it could have been exposed to too much oxygen (sitting
in a half-filled barrel for instance) before it was ever bottled
(unlikely in this modern, oxophobic era).

Mark Lipton

I'm going to agree with Ed on this one- can't see any other reason why
they would be so quick to give up on the entire case.

e.

"DPM" > wrote:

> But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not
> notice any leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this
> type of damage to happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are
> there other conditions that cause a wine to oxidise?

- heat damage (although I don't see why the taint wouldn't be here
right from the beginning);

- bad sulphur management (too low SO2 levels right from start), a
winemaking problem;

- random oxidation by oxigen ingress through a bad cork (happens
more often than one thinks, but then in affects not the total
batch).

M.

"DPM" > wrote:

> But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not
> notice any leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this
> type of damage to happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are
> there other conditions that cause a wine to oxidise?

- heat damage (although I don't see why the taint wouldn't be here
right from the beginning);

- bad sulphur management (too low SO2 levels right from start), a
winemaking problem;

- random oxidation by oxigen ingress through a bad cork (happens
more often than one thinks, but then in affects not the total
batch).

M.

"DPM" > wrote:

> But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not
> notice any leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this
> type of damage to happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are
> there other conditions that cause a wine to oxidise?

- heat damage (although I don't see why the taint wouldn't be here
right from the beginning);

- bad sulphur management (too low SO2 levels right from start), a
winemaking problem;

- random oxidation by oxigen ingress through a bad cork (happens
more often than one thinks, but then it affects not the total
batch).

M.

"DPM" > wrote:

> But later I got to thinking: the cork was fine, and I did not
> notice any leakage or damage to the cap. What would cause this
> type of damage to happen? Heat seems the most likely, but are
> there other conditions that cause a wine to oxidise?

- heat damage (although I don't see why the taint wouldn't be here
right from the beginning);

- bad sulphur management (too low SO2 levels right from start), a
winemaking problem;

- random oxidation by oxigen ingress through a bad cork (happens
more often than one thinks, but then it affects not the total
batch).

M.