What is this flaw?

The wine is a 2009 Pinot Noir from Oregon. Upon opening everything seems fine. Cork doesn’t show any problems. The color is correct. The nose is correct. Upon initial tasting, it seems fine, then about 15 seconds after swallowing an excessive bitterness that I can’t describe hits the tip of the tongue and doesn’t leave. It just sits there for minutes while I try to find a way to get rid of it.

I let the wine sit in the glass for 30 minutes or so and try it again and the bitterness is slightly less but still there. Corked the bottle back up and put it in the fridge for a day and when I tried it again after 24 hours there is no difference.

Any ideas what this is as I have never experienced anything like it before.

Green tannins? Perhaps it was picked too young and the greeny stems added to fermentation?

Interesting. The concept with stems is that you not only extract tannins but plenty of bitter compounds as well, and the earlier in the harvest, most likely the more of these that would be present (all things considered, including fermentation temperature).

Have you reached out to the winery to find out about stem inclusion? Do you have another bottle?

There certainly have been plenty of cases where stems do not fully integrate over time, just as there are examples of oak not integrating. That said, I usually get some idea of this on the nose.

Cheers.

I would have to second bitter tannins from stems. They often will burn the tip of my tongue as well. Occasionally, reductive elements can do that for me but you usually smell them first as a fingernail polish nose.

Lawrence,

Nail polish is usually associated with high levels of ethyl acetate, not reduction. Reduction usually leads to rotten egg aromas that can then go the route of cabbage or onion if left untreated . . .

Cheers.

I have not reached out to the winery yet. I don’t have another bottle of the same vintage.

Well, this certainly seems to have yielded proof that the old ‘tongue map’ of tasting is wrong.

Agreed and if it makes any difference I asked my wife to taste the wine before I said anything about the specifics of what I was tasting and she had the same basic reaction. a delayed bitter aftertaste on the tip of the tongue only.

While I can’t answer the question, I find your experience very interesting and well described!

I’d think this is a plus, given more time to age. Tongue tip spicy is good trait of Burgs.

I can get a strong bitter sense from wines that have a little brett, or TCA at a low level. Though I think the dominant impression is usually more of a metallic taste.

Brett, that’s interesting.

I am going to observe for this!

That’s exactly what I was going to say. I “feel” TCA on the tip and sometimes side of my tongue before it’s noticeable on the nose (wet newspaper).

Amertume?

Pedio or Lacto could cause this, though I’ve never encountered it.

"Only in recent years have taste receptors been identified. One of the first breakthroughs in taste research came in 1974 with the realization that the tongue map was essentially a century-old misunderstanding that no one challenged.

You might know the map: The taste buds for “sweet” are on the tip of the tongue; the “salt” taste buds are on either side of the front of the tongue; “sour” taste buds are behind this; and “bitter” taste buds are way in the back. Wineglasses are said to cater to this arrangement.

The tongue map is easy enough to prove wrong at home. Place salt on the tip of your tongue. You’ll taste salt. For reasons unknown, scientists never bothered to dispute this inconvenient truth.

The map has frustrated many a grade-schooler, including me, who couldn’t get the experiment right in science class. I failed for insisting I could taste sugar in the back of my tongue."

Brian, another possibility could be the wine was treated with Copper Sulphate. This is sometimes added to overly reductive wines and if overused leaves an extremely bitter taste on the tongue. Its a remarkably durable bitterness, and your description brought this to mind immediately.

If the bitterness is stems, it should also be astringent, if not bitter, in other areas of your mouth as well. My 09s all had relatively high percentages of stems and the last bottle of Matello Willamette Pinot Noir I tried was very, very tight but after 24 hours it had softened considerably.

The wine is a . . . Pinot Noir

Brian - I hate to be the one to point it out my friend, but you’ve identified the problem yourself.

Time to open a nice Syrah.

Leave that nasty taste for others.

I don’t think its TCA or brett. I have had numerous bottles of each over the year and never experienced anything like this in the past. I have to admit that I don’t really pick up stems all that well so not sure if what I tasted would reflect green stems or not. I did have a Texier 2010 Brezeme the night before and this was nothing like that. I only note this since some consider Texier to have an excessive stem signature. I only know of one copper treated wine that I have tasted having done so with the wine maker who disclosed that fact as we were tasting it. This did not resemble that experience at all but I don’t know the details of the copper treatment on the wine and that data point may not apply.

I appreciate the responses. In roughly 25 years of drinking wine, I have never experienced anything like this before. I wish I had kept the wine for another day or two to see if it ever changed.

bacterial spoilage can cause a similar sensation after swallowing, but this flaw known as goût de souris is usually found in low/no sulphur wines.

This is possible, but if it is a good producer I would imagine that lot needing to treat Mercaptans with CUSO4 would have been pitched as Pinot remembers everything. My bet is still solely on bacteria, maybe post bottling metabolism of glycerol.