A few weeks ago, there were many wholesale/trade tastings in NY. I try to taste as much as I can, but I cannot help but get frustrated when they pour me a flawed wine. Usually, they are just corked. I try to point them out, but often times the person pouring is a volunteer. It is more embarassing when it is an actual winemaker or importer.
Then, yesterday, I had an appt with a well known Napa winery at the store. They brought in 4 wines. Each was about 60% full, as they had been to appts throughout the day.
Wine #4 was corked. They tasted it in the morning (they claimed) to make sure it was correct. Then they visited other retailers, who did not say a word.
I’ve seen this a lot, but as we all know, it’s palate-dependent. Some folks can sense it right away (like me, lucky me) at the tiniest levels, others couldn’t detect it if you stuck the cork in their nose. Winemaker, importer or random volunteer, it doesn’t matter, it all depends. The best you can do is point it out to them politely (which I try to do all the time).
I will agree that it is frustrating when it happens and you can detect it and they can’t.
I got to taste a few Leroy wines yesterday (yes!) and I was the first one there. I had to point out to their National Sales Director that the '96 1er Meursault was corked. This was after he had tasted through all the wines.
I wouldn’t say it’s a problem with our industry, I just think that there are a lot of people who are insensitive to TCA or just too damn “polite” to point out that a wine is flawed. Personally I have no problem, if they are worth a shit they will be appreciative of having a problem like that pointed out, even if they don’t have a backup bottle.
I am not ITB, obviously, but I do appear to be fairly tolerant to TCA. Meeshell opened a corked white Burg this past weekend for us and pretty much everyone was appalled that sniffed it. For me it was barely noticed. I think that if you are ITB, especially the winemaker/owner, you should train yourself to recognized it.
I think there is a woeful lack of knowledge on the subject out there. I’ve tried to point out TCA at trade tastings only to be rebuffed with the usual old school excuses. For many the knee jerk reaction is that you are criticizing the wine and they immediately want to defend it.
I rode with a rep awhile back, and he had seen an account before picking me up. I tasted the wines, and one was corked so I poured it out. My rep said he couldn’t tell the wine was corked because it was so cold (SB), and that the account he saw that morning bought a case of the corked wine.
There are many people out there drinking corked wines. If it’s corked, it’s corked, and it needs to be called. Don’t feel bad.
What do you guys think is the best way to become educated in this?
I tried, for a while, to have reps leave corked bottles with me, so I could keep smelling and imprinting the aroma even more firmly. But, if it is really a matter of an individual’s sensitivity, isn’t it rather difficult to do something like that?
I’ve read that there’s a place (in Napa, I think) that can test a person’s sensitivity to things like TCA. And I’ve heard it suggested that posting the test results should be required by shop owners. Nice idea, but I’d bet it would take a heavy toll on the number of shops around (even greater than the economy has already).
To give some of them the benefit of the doubt, a mildly corked wine, opened and poured all day will be much more obvious at stop #6 than it was in the morning. The thing that really pisses me off is when the distributor/winery argues about it and won’t open a new bottle. Aren’t they trying to sell the wine? Wouldn’t it taste better not corked*
\
I do remember a tasting of a corked KJ Sauvignon Blanc vs. uncorked. The group preferred the corked (me inclulded) by a 9 to 8 margin. The corked wine was better as it had so much less of everything.
But Bill - even if you don’t get hit with the aroma a heavily it still affects your appreciation of the wine, no? I’ve had wines at the edge of being noticeably corky, but the fruit and aromas seems dull and stripped. If I pulled out a youngish wine like that and it should have significant fruit but didn’t… i’d assume cork.
I am one of those people who do not notice small amounts of TCA. I might notice the flavors are off and on several occasions thought the wine had an earthiness or “forest floor” characteristic. At higher levels I can tell by the taste, but still not detect it by smell unless it is really, really corked. Hence, Carrie does the tasting and buying. I do the drinking and the dishes.
Carrie is quick to tell the supplier, vendor, winemaker, etc. that a wine is corked. She’s pretty diplomatic about it and the presenter is usually very appreciative.
As far as “all over CA” is concerned: They do individuals (I guess) but mostly groups (tasting room staff, sales reps, etc) on a pre-arranged basis where they come to the client and charge a per person fee + travel expenses. So… they’ll come to you for a price. They have offices in Napa, Windsor, Paso and Santa Maria, where they will do individuals and groups during certain times of the year. Cost is $75 per person.
Might be something to consider for my next Central Coast visit, after harvest is done.
I still remember about a year ago when I had a group of 3 that represented a larger Italian winery. They had been to at least 3 or 4 other places before they got to me. We got talking about closures and they said they were at the 2-3% corked wines for their brand. They had 6 wines to pour and 2 were corked. They did not have backup bottles. I then pointed out that 2 out of 6 is not 2-3%. Over the next 2 months I had the Falanghina 4 more times. Three times it was corked. I had sent them several e-mails because they had code numbers to track the lots. After the third time they quit responding to my e-mails.
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}