A Nose That Knows

As a sommelier/bar manager in very busy restaurant, my servers frequently come to me with an open bottle of wine that their table has sent back because the wine is "off".

For curiosity's sake and to keep my nose trained to the elements of tainted wine, I'll frequently pour a bit of the wine in question to examine it. My conclusion? The majority of these wines are perfectly fine.

Since we're certainly not in the business of embarassing guests out or making them suffer through a bottle of wine they won't enjoy, we are more than happy to exchange it for another bottle, no questions asked. The LCBO gives us full credit for wines that are suspected to be tainted and will then test each bottle to find its fault. We wouldn't be in business long if we said, "The wine's fine. You're paying for it, you might as well drink it." That really doesn't put the "hospitable" in hospitality.

In most cases, what the guest may find offensive are the inherent aromas/flavours in the wine they've first tried; the barnyard aromas of Pinot Noir, the leathery, dusty tones of some Italians (the wines, not the people!), the astringency of young Bordeaux.

I suggest to my servers that they next offer a wine free of whatever character may have been disliked in the first place and bingo! The guest is pleased, we're pleased to have pleased the guest and everyone goes home pleased.

This is most often the case.

Recently though, a server brought an open bottle of wine back to the bar, rolled his eyes at me as he said, "Apparently this wine is bad." (Some servers have caught on to the phenomena I mentioned earlier and are obliging with their guests, but skeptical all the same.) I dutifully poured a bit into a glass, gave it a sniff and phew! THE WINE WAS ACTUALLY TAINTED!

It was a common case of cork taint, a fungus that can affect corks and results in wine that smells of wet dog, damp newspaper, mothballs, etc. Surprisingly though, about 12% of wines suffer cork taint. That's more than 1 in 10. That means out of every 10 bottles of wine you've drunk, 1 of them has been off. Did you notice? Most people don't. Their noses simply aren't trained to it. They deem the wine terrible and never buy it again.

This gentleman, though, had found cork taint! I was overjoyed. I rushed over to the table at once to apologize for the off bottle and to meet the man with the knowing nose! He was a bit surprised, but quite flattered when I congratulated his olfactory prowess...men like that...We had a lovely conversation and he and his guest enjoyed their new bottle of wine and the rest of their evening.

So, how can you avoid a tainted wine or know the difference between a wine that is off and a wine you simply don't like? There are plenty of faults and plenty of warning signs, but here's the key:

When testing out a newly opened bottle of wine, avoid the urge to first swirl it in the glass. Swirling the wine releases its primary aromas (the fruity stuff) by letting a thin film of wine coat the inside of the glass and allowing the alcohol to evaporate quickly, leaving the aromas behind. This action masks any fault previously apparent. So, pour, sniff and if you don't find anything that smells like gym socks or the first day you open up the cottage after a long winter, swirl away! And if you do find something a little too funky for your liking, return it and start again.

A foolproof way to avoid cork taint altogether is to buy wines with screwtops, or Stelvin closures as their known in the industy. They'll be a topic of a blog entry to come...stay tuned!

Cheers!