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Leslie Cramer
Wine ExaminerLeslie Cramer has worked in the fine wine industry for twenty- something years. Known in some circles as "The Wine Wizardess," she'll cover topics from wine education, to trends o' the day and how to properly propose a toast, to health benefits of the grape.
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WINE WORD WEDNESDAYS- ORGANIC CHEMISTRY?
3 comments
by Leslie Cramer, Wine Examiner
And what greets you? The stench of skunk? Your Grandma's boiled cabbage? The under the house root cellar? Heaven above, what could possibly have gone wrong you ask?
Understanding organic chemistry would go a along way here. But short of that, a simple explanation may (or may not...) provide the world's wine drinkers a reason why that coveted bottle may not be measuring up, aroma-wise. A far-ranging set of reasons may allude to why your bottle has developed a foul odor or taste. It may be the unclean barrel the wine was fermented in, it may be overexposure of oxygen to the wine, it may be the existence of offensive-smelling bacteria.
Bear in mind, personal tastes and smells vary substantially to different pleasant (or not so much) odors. Oddball odors (like cat pee--better known by the expletive of the word) in a decent Sauvignon Blanc) may even seem appealing when present in very small quantities. Case in point, professional wine tasters often taste wine together. A detraction that one person may not detect may likely be noticed by someone else.
And to be sure, generally only a small fraction of wines produced exhibit a foul smelling aroma.
WET SHEEPDOG- A wine that may be 'corked;' that the cork (and the wine) may be tainted by a compound--trichloranisole--noticeable even in microscopic amounts. Synthetic corks or twist-off tops are one solution the wine industry has tried in regards to combating this problem. Also, early research has shown that wines aged with these alternative toppers may not age as well as wines stoppered with natural cork.
BANANA- A slight amount of banana flavor or aroma may not be objectionable, anything more than that tastes "off," mostly in red wines. This is a by-product of malolactic fermentation, where the sharp-biting malic acid has been converted to the much softer lactic acid.
VINEGAR- When a wine's fermentation is improperly handled; a sign of acetic acid bacteria that that may have begun to grow. Or this can be at any time when oxygen, alcohol,and acetic acid find themselves together.
BAND-AID- A manifestation of Brettanomyces, a yeast that causes spoilage in wine. The smell i considered by some to be pleasing, though only in ever-so-small amounts.
Once again we are just scratching the surface of obscure wine terms here. Stay tuned, especially on WINE WORD WEDNESDAYS where I'll try to explicate some of the perplexingly lugubrious lexicon of wine vernacular. And continue to send me/us your favorite terms or ones you've often heard but never had a clue as to what they meant.
* Things you'd probably rather not find in your wine glass
Skol!
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