When floral goes funky

WHEN a waiter pours a sip of wine for us to taste from a just-opened bottle, he’s offering us the opportunity to judge whether it’s flawed. We swirl and sniff. But what are we supposed to be smelling? If it’s corked, would we know? Unfortunately, the opportunity is usually wasted. Relatively few diners can tell a corked wine from one that is merely banal. And funky smells? They might not indicate a flaw, but rather a hint of appealing complexity.

To appreciate good wines, you need to know how to spot the bad ones. It’s not just an issue for diners; wine industry professionals have just as much trouble detecting flaws. That’s why legions have trekked to UC Davis Extension over the last 26 years to take John Buechsenstein’s “Introduction to Sensory Evaluation of Wine.” This crash course about wine’s worst failings has become a rite of professional passage.

The sharp smell of a mildew-infested gym hits your nose the moment you step into the classroom. The aroma wafting up from the dozens of wine glasses on the tables also smacks of wet dog fur, dirty socks and soggy cardboard left out in the rain. Now that’s corked wine, says Buechsenstein, winemaker for Sauvignon Republic Cellars.

Buechsenstein favors a hit-you-over-the-head approach. Forget the rhapsodic wine poetry, he instructs the room of 50 students, each with an odiferous semicircle of half-filled wine glasses on the table before them. “Defects are in the nose of the beholder,” says Buechsenstein. “To make intelligent decisions about buying wines, you need to know about flaws. On the other hand, we have to be cautious with this knowledge. The most beautiful objects in the world are not perfect.”

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Six to avoid

TO teach his students the difference, Buechsenstein boils down the definition of bad wine to a set of six foul flaws. These are the most common problems that have persisted despite the best efforts by the modern wine industry to establish uniformity.

Cork taint, what is often referred to as “corked” wine, is the world’s most prevalent wine flaw. According to industry estimates, one in 10 bottles of wine will have a touch of the mildew stench that Buechsenstein’s students smelled when they entered his classroom.

The next most common flaw is the presence of Brettanomyces, a kind of spoiled yeast that, at high levels, can give off a Band-Aid/medicinal smell or a barnyard/compost funkiness. The rest of the list includes volatile acidity which causes vinegar or nail polish aromas, the nose-burning presence of detectable sulfites, the rotten egg stench of sulfides, and oxidation indicated by cooked-fruit odors.

As his students swirl and sniff Buechsenstein’s exaggerated examples -- some glasses hold flawed wines and some have chemical cocktails that imitate flaws -- Buechsenstein explains that “wine is a sponge for odors.” Modern technology and good sanitation have reduced the amount of flawed wine on the market.

But wine is organic and made by humans. Flaws are part of the package. The issue, he says, is whether the flaws interfere with the enjoyment of the wine.

Sensitivities to imperfections are intensely personal. Wine drinkers are as prejudiced about perceived flaws as they are about perceived strengths in wine.

When it comes to cork taint, every nose is unique. “Different people have different thresholds of sensitivity to cork taint,” says Peter Marks, wine curator at Napa’s Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. Wine professionals can be educated to detect cork taint. “But I know Masters of Wine [the industry’s most highly trained professionals] who rarely notice it, while other people can pick up the slightest trace,” he says. “I detect it most often when it subdues the fruit character of a wine. It makes the wine taste sharp, yet hollow, as if it lacks a soul.”

Technically, a corked wine has been tainted with trichloroanisole, or TCA, a chemical that arises in the wine as a byproduct of mold in the cork or the winery. It can be present in the cork when it arrives at the winery or can result from something as seemingly unrelated as a barrel room’s humidifier that hasn’t been properly maintained, which apparently affected some of the 1999 vintage at Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa Valley.

In 2003, standing water in a drain triggered a smaller outbreak of TCA at a Gallo of Sonoma winery. Cleaning with chlorine bleach, a common practice in years past, can also spark an outbreak of cork taint.

Corked wine doesn’t always smell like a dirty locker room. It may instead act as a wet blanket on a wine, masking flavors either slightly or completely. And because the evidence of corked wine is often the absence of a characteristic, it goes unnoticed, says Buechsenstein. People just think the wine is a dud and avoid buying it again. “Many times you can’t know for sure that a wine’s corked unless you are tasting an uncorked bottle of the same wine, side by side,” he says. And even then you need to make sure both bottles aren’t from a contaminated winery where cork taint is widespread.

The presence of TCA is always a flaw, Buechsenstein says, which is not true of Brettanomyces. Called “brett,” for short, this spoilage yeast is the result of poor sanitation and insufficient sulfites to preserve the wine. It can manifest in one of two ways: a funky barnyard aroma or an abrasive chemical bite. Still, some wine critics, including the powerful Robert M. Parker Jr., are known to rate brett-heavy wines among their favorites.

At low levels, brett can add complexity and interesting flavors. “It’s common in Rhone Valley reds and I love them for it,” says Buechsenstein. “It comes and goes in the red wines from Old World wine regions.” At higher levels, however, the wines reek.

Volatile acidity with its vinegar or nail polish aromas is caused by a bacterium that can flourish in wine when oxygen is present. This bacterium is present in all wines at very low levels. It can multiply out of control when a winemaker fails to top off oak barrels and stainless steel tanks during aging.

All wines are equally susceptible, says Buechsenstein. But because red wines spend more time aging in the winery, they are more likely to suffer volatile acidity.

Sulfites, commonly used to preserve wines, are considered a flaw anytime they are noticeable in the bottle. “It’s more of a sharp bite in the nose than a smell,” says Buechsenstein. It blocks the other wine aromas and doesn’t blow off or dissipate in the glass.

Over time in the bottle, the wine will absorb excess sulfites. If you notice it, he suggests waiting a few months before opening the next bottle in that particular case.

Sulfides smell worse -- like a combination of bubbling, sulfur hot springs and an old-fashioned beauty parlor -- but they are easier to manage. Common in Rhone Valley Grenaches and Spanish Grenaches as well as Syrah from anywhere in the world, sulfides are a residue from the elemental sulfur used in the vineyards or from an incomplete fermentation.

The rotten-egg stink may be overwhelming when the bottle is opened. But, often, it quickly blows off and the underlying wine is fine. Decanting the wine helps to get rid of the stink.

Detecting oxidized wine is fairly easy because of its sickly sweet, cooked fruit odors. These wines also have distinctive sherried flavors and brownish orange colors that result from exposure to oxygen through a leaky cork or from storage at high temperatures.

For graduates of Buechsenstein’s class, identifying the flaws becomes easier. But the etiquette of rejecting a flawed wine can be tricky. They’ve learned that individual preference plays a huge role in accepting or rejecting flaws. Can you send back a wine that only you think is corked or has sulfites that burn only your nose?

Absolutely, say sommeliers. Immediately return any wine you think is flawed. Any reputable restaurant will take it back, regardless of the restaurant’s own judgment of the wine.

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Screening process

AT Sona, sommelier Mark Mendoza says he opens at least three to five corked bottles of wine each month. Other flaws that won’t blow off after decanting are rare. As any good sommelier should do, Mendoza screens the wines before serving them.

“I try to put my nose in every bottle, if not also taste them, to be sure they aren’t corked,” says Mendoza. His customers rarely know about the corked wines.

“Guests will ask me to taste a wine they think is flawed. If I think it’s OK, I try to explain to them what they are tasting. If they still think it’s flawed, I’ll take it away and serve them something else,” he says. Mendoza won’t, however, open another bottle of the same wine for them.

“I politely say they should order a different wine that might be more appealing to them. If there is nothing wrong with the first wine, I know that they will send the second bottle back as well.”

All restaurants should behave as graciously, says Learn About Wine founder Ian Blackburn, who advises the people who attend his Los Angeles-area wine seminars to immediately return any wine they think is flawed.

“Any restaurant should take back anything that’s not right,” he says, “whether it’s a bottle of wine or water.”

What about retail stores? “Most people don’t notice cork taint,” says Michael Cristillo, wine buyer for the Bristol Farms chain of grocery stores. “People usually just think it’s not a good wine.” The rare customers who return a bottle that they say smells corked, however, get their money back or a replacement bottle. “We always take it back, regardless,” he says.

While detecting a wine’s flaws may be a subjective exercise, it’s not an empty one. Remember Buechsenstein’s guideline: If a flaw interferes with your enjoyment of a wine, it should be avoided. So don’t rush through that ceremonial taste of a just-opened bottle of wine. Consider whether the aroma and flavor is right. It’s a serious ritual after all.