- Oxidation
- Cork Taint
- Sulfur Compounds
- Secondary Fermentation
- Heat Damage
- UV Damange
- Microbial Taints
Unfortunately, I was left wondering how I would respond if I actually came face to face with one of those faults. At a winery I was once showed a corked (cork taint) wine so I'm pretty sure I could ID the tell-tale sign of wet cardboard, but for the other ones, I'm not sure how easy it would be. Some of the descriptions seem remarkably close to somm descriptions of certain wines. Is the barnyard smell in my wine a sign of great character from Bordeaux or is it the sign of a microbial taint (...or both)? How can I start educating myself on what these things smell like? How do I know that the smell is intentional vs. a flaw? If we're meant to see flaws as bad, how do I understand the success of the Scholium Project which makes wines that are technically flawed or at least appear flawed in many cases (http://scholiumwines.com)? At the end of the day, do flaws really matter if you like the wine?
Totally agree its hard to spot wine defects, and I've seen statistics estimating that over 5% of wines sold have some type of defect. About a year ago I had an experience at a restaurant where our bottle of red wine tasted very flat / watered down and the color was much duller that it should have been. We told the waiter that something seemed 'off' and he immediately replaced the bottle at no charge. My recommendation would be to ask the waiter / somm if something seems weird with your wine hopefully the restaurant will do the right thing and replace it!
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