Once shared an absolutely horrifically light struck bottle of deutz amour with neal martin. He seemed ok looking past the stink whereas I couldn’t even brung myself to take a sip.
The idea that it affects “so few” bottles doesn’t really seem to make much sense when in theory any wine is susceptible to it to some degree and some much more so - clear bottles, white and rose wines. The fact that it is controllable after bottling would seem to me to make it more important to talk about and address, rather than less.
It seems like the fact that it’s not as easily identifiable wouldn’t necessarily make it a less important problem. My real life example - I’m pretty insensitive (but not completely) to TCA - mature bottles others have identified as definitely corked - I just didn’t like very much because the fruit was completely gone - i didn’t get any of the unpleasant TCA aromas. So if I in isolation taste a cork-tainted bottle, i’m liable to write off that wine and not return to it in the future, rather than understanding that the wine might be just flawed and worth retrying in the right circumstances.
Light strike is like that, but for everyone. As you mention it is so hard to confirm that’s what has happened without a whole controlled experiment in front of you, but this is all the reason to take it more seriously. As a consumer I try my best to buy from retailers and wineries that also take the problem seriously (i.e. less clear glass bottles and less light exposed retail setting).
Don’t remember where I heard this but the Cristal packaging is, IIRC, all about one of the Tsars and his paranoia. They made bottles without a punt because he was worried there would be an explosive? device placed there, and clear bottles because he was paranoid of being poisoned. Subsequently adding the UV foil at some point for light damage protection reasons.
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Let me give you an example.
At the end of 2023, I bought some Bollinger SC on blowout from a retailer because he had a great deal from the distributor. It was a private offer that never even made it to the store shelves. I think he paid $44/b and I paid $49b – great deal. I bought (10) 6 packs which I picked up the day they were delivered by the distributor and all were in sealed/glued Bollinger OCs. I took them straight home and unloaded them into my climate controlled garage where they stayed in sealed boxes at 68F until I put them in my fridge before drinking.
Of the ~15 bottles I’ve had so far, one has been clearly light struck. When do you suppose that happened?
I would bet money that if it was flawed, it was something other than “light strike,” with the more likely possibility for a wine like Bollinger SC that you just had an off night, not the wine.
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We pick up corked bottles all the time, the account requests, there must be wine left in bottle, and the rep checks it next time in the account and we charge back the supplier.
No clue how we would confirm and bill the supplier for this, and if any supplier would actually credit us back. Opens the door for a lot of unethical returns that already go on where accounts open bottles to taste and try to return them as flawed with 2oz of wine jn them and becomes a point of contention when we see it isn’t corked.
This would also mean the customer returned it, which I assume is highly unlikely, hence I’d take the word of accounts I trusted.
I think it is more likely that the distributor cooked the bottles and you’re interpreting the flaw as light struck.
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I think it is relative, in all my years in the industry working both for a supplier and a distributor in the fine wine space it has never come up, so to me personally, I don’t find the effort discussing it justified the way I do hot trucks and TCA. I think it just becomes another detail for the board to quibble over.
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But other bottles from the same carton were completely fine. It was either TCA below my threshold for picking it up or light strike.
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Also never had anyone mention this after moving hundreds of thousands of bottles. And believe me, there were many reasons people returned bottles that were akin to “the dog ate my homework.”
I grew up traveling to Mexico rather frequently and know full well the skunky aroma and flavor that came with so many of the beers in clear and even green bottles. Never really in brown bottle or cans at least to the same degree. I’ve often wondered why some rose and Champagnes of all types are bottled in clear bottles or why there doesn’t seem to be a wider problem with wine in clear bottles. Cristal is the only one that comes to mind right now that I like and drink and I’ve never had an issue, even with bottles bought from individual cellars.
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The wine could have been otherwise flawed and not be light struck… the bollinger is in a brown bottle and was sealed so it seems very unlikely it was light strike.
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Sparkling wines are different than other wines in having in individual ferment specific to the individual bottles.
Your singleton could simply have had a bit more struggle in the bottle fermentation and produced more complex/fixed reductive components. Or it’s also feasible that it could have been in the top layer of a tirage bin sitting on top of the stack in a room with florescent lights. Hard to know as lightstrike definitely shares a lot of aspects with complex reductive compounds. Hard to say which though.
As far as returns go, swapping the bottle out in a restaurant is probably fine. As the comsumer you have never been in posession of the wine prior to tasting and refusing the wine as flawed. If it really is lightstruck any good sommelier would accept the flaw as it will not taste remotely “proper” even if it doesn’t smell/taste of TCA. And many restaurants recognize that a good experience for the guest is more important than quibbling over what flaws are ok to send back wines over. Retail, would be different as there’s no way to know if the consumer treated the wine correctly or not. But if you have a long and good relationship with a wine shop, and they know your level of care and awareness in wines, maybe they would take it back.
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Aren’t the glass doors on quality wine fridges ones that don’t let through UV or whatever bands of light that would affect the bottles?
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Taking a tangent off the main topic but as to your last points about taking bottles back one thing that stuck in my head when a retailer wanted to send back about 50 bottles of a 60 bottle order because their “customers didn’t like the wine” even though the store owner tasted the wine before ordering and admitted the wine was not flawed. Keep in mind I still had to pay for delivering and picking up the wine so it was a loss for me to do it. I called a friend ITB before doing anything and he dropped one simple sentence that I’ve kept in mind ever since: It’s a lot easier to keep a customer than it is to find a new one.
A couple more anecdotes: I saw someone returning a “corked” bottle to a friend’s shop. It was a synthetic cork. Doesn’t mean it couldn’t be flawed or have TCA but the wine was sound. We tried it. Owner refunded anyway without giving the guy a hard time.
I returned a partial case to a retailer after having a couple bottles from it that were clearly cooked. They tried so hard to guilt me and essentially said I cooked it by improper storage. They begrudgingly gave me credit after I held my ground but they really made a stink of it. I noticed they pulled all their stock of that wine from the shelves a couple weeks later. I never bought from them again.
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A lot of States have laws around returning wine that isn’t flawed as its viewed as consignment sales and you have to return the entire order in full. For me, the answer was always no as it violates State law, but you can go to the WSLCB and ask for a waiver to the RCW.
No one ever did that I recall.
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I have a half wine fridge that gets some morning light so I looked up the fridge specs - yeah they specifically mentioned UV blocking. My sample size is 1 but I would imagine this is common
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I’ve heard that was true, although I wouldn’t call it paranoia. There were multiple attempts on Tsar Alexander II’s life. In 1881 he was assassinated by a bomb, albeit not one in a bottle punt.
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You need to go to Champagne and educate producers then. They seem to think it is. Maybe you meant this is not a meaningful problem to you?
There’s also a lot of scientific articles on the actual reactions causing this and the effect of light as a catalyst to them.
This 
.
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I think he was afraid of bombs, more so than poison. And it’s not paranoia if they’re actually out to get you.
I don’t think I would have a clue if a bottle was suffering from “light strike”. I don’t really know what the symptoms would be, or how they differ from other flaws. It does seem a little too nebulous for me, given the amount of mysticism that already exists around wine.
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I’m w/ Alan on this one.
Could we set a btl in direct sunlight for a week and get a “light strike”. Do the A/B comparison??
Tom