Bad Wine or Bad Taste Buds

I don’t have the fine palate of many here but occasionally I notice something nobody else does until I mention it. Tonight’s starter, a Pinot as usual, is 2014 vintage. When I get the cork out, I see it is 3/4 saturated and has a distinct line to the top of the cork, indicating it is or is about to be a leaker. Pour a taste for Carrie, she says it’s fine. I know this wine pretty well and think I could pick it out in a blind tasting but when I took my first sip it didn’t measure up. It seemed slightly thinner on fruit, tannic to a chemical like taste. Point it out to Carrie and she gives the “You kidding me look?” I mentally check my activities today. The only thing different was the haircut. I don’t use hairspray, (hoping it just stays on my head), but the girl that cuts my hair combs it the way she likes it and uses hairspray. My choices:

A. Bad bottle and Carrie missed it.
B. Something so subtle only I can detect it.
C. The hairspray triggered erroneous sensory input.
D. Taste buds off tonight
E. Maybe it’s time to hang up the old taste buds and re-explore Scotch.

Just say what I say, “Yes, dear. Whatever you say dear.”

Must safer in the long run.

I have experienced the “You kidding me look?” before, we all have. Just agree yo are wrong and move on.

Seriously, I have had the same response to wine before and while my wife’s palate is much more refined than mine for picking out specific elements of the wine, I can usually pick out flaws better. It was probably just bottle variation and maybe it was not you who was off, but your lovely wife. Do not tell her I said that.

Ahem! cough cough! I’m not invisible here Paul (thanks for the lovely comment) I don’t think it’s up to what we are used to from this wine but it’s not totally awful or I was just fcking with lover of mac n cheese ( palate extraordinaire, Randy)

B. Something so subtle only I can detect it.

I would never think you were invisible Carrie, I just figured you were busy whipping up a mac and cheese pizza for Randy.

I don’t find it extremely unusual for two people drinking the same wine to have vastly different impressions. Could be how long ago you brushed your teeth, or lots of other reasons.

I´d say “A” … or probably B …

When I get the cork out, I see it is 3/4 saturated and has a distinct line to the top of the cork, indicating it is or is about to be a leaker.

A 2014 saturated so high may be an indication of “too warm shipping” … usually it takes many years for saturation to get so high …
Ok, it might also have been a very bad (fitting) cork …

Not knowing what Pinot it has been … but if it was a French PN made in a quite structured style it also could have been slightly closed … (too young) ? There ARE some …

Last possibility: it was slightly “corked” … (answer D)

My first thought is this is corked. As I have learned, a corked wine can fall into a bell shape curve and there is a point where the wine does not display the wet cardboard taint, but the fruit is dissipated as you say here, thin. Typically, in this case, a wine that has been known to have some power, thrust, loses that feature and becomes a skeleton of itself.

I had this experience recently with a Corton Charlemagne that is well known for being full bodied and seriously fruity. It was neither and my conclusion was it fell into the corked bell curve mode as I suspect your bottle did.

Guys, it’s a domestic dispute . Don’t get involved!!!

Last night’s Pinot was Luli, a vibrant fruit forward Santa Lucia offering. Tonight it’s 2013 Thomas Dundee Hills Pinot, another one I truly enjoy. After the first two sips, I can now narrow the choices down to two:

D. Taste buds off tonight
E. Maybe it’s time to hang up the old taste buds and re-explore Scotch.

Not near as bad as last night but I definitely notice the tannin and alcohol give me an initial chemical impression and fruit is subdued. The mouth feel is correct. Luli is more viscous and the Thomas has cleaner or more defined fruit flavors. Everything is correct bottle to bottle, so it is clearly me.

Now the question of how to correct the problem:

A. Abstain for some amount of time.
B. Switch to high acid Sauvignon Blanc to cleanse those taste buds and teach them a lesson.
C. Switch to Scotch and learn the nuances of peat and oil.

Randy, I say go with “A” That means more for me There is nothing wrong with this wine tonight, it’s delicious.

Domestic dispute or lousy palate = all solved

Randy I’ve run into the same issue, all the way down to the chemical/alcohol taste. Wasn’t with a Thomas Pinot but it was a situation where we’d had a number of what I would consider riper Pinots, and I remember registering surprise when I had what I considered a balanced Pinot and still it tasted chemically/alcohol-y.

In my case I pretty much did all of A, B and C, and at some point it sorted itself out. Which of course isn’t much help. Good luck.

Maybe you are getting sick or allergies are affecting you. Or the on, Carrie is tampering with your glass to make the wine taste off so you will drink something else thereby leving more for her.

Or you’re tasting on root days and you’re a leaf guy?

I’ve noticed that from time to time a number of wines taste weird. Often kind of metallic and unpleasant, and it’s not related to the grape varieties at all. Then that goes away and we’re good again. It was over a week recently that everything I tasted was horrible.

Of course, it may just be that I was drinking shitty wine.

Early Hof contender.