Wine, how to recognise defects in a newly uncorked bottle on the fly

Not all olfactory and gustatory imperfections in a wine are attributable to defects in the cork, although you are not forgiven for not recognising the typical corky smell that is a serious defect. Let us look together at the most obvious negative connotations that we can detect when opening a bottle.

Corked wine is immediately recognisable by the smell of mould, of a damp cellar, and this is due to a mould called trichloroanisole (Tca). In the case of 'corked' wine, a heartfelt piece of advice: avoid fussing and forcing, and hurry up and get rid of that wretched bottle, which is also disgusting in the kitchen, since corked food is unpleasant and indigestible, just like that wine.

Another very bad characteristic that is easily recognisable in the glass is the 'volatile', what they used to call 'cue': that is, when a wine has literally 'taken on vinegar'. You can recognise it by the hint of solvent, like the acetone we ladies use (but the category is expanding) to remove nail varnish. On this subject: have you ever drunk a home-made wine from some country folk who passed it off to you as the ultimate in authenticity? 'I didn't put anything in it, there's only crushed grapes here!': well, that's not true and generally that wine is also a terrible stuff that often tastes like vinegar; simply not everyone has the courage to say so and cwith the excuse of 'naturalness' they guzzle down unthinkable filth. Rather, learn to recognise volatile acidity at the first sip and possibly also on olfactory examination.

Reduction with a proper glass and some 'breathing' (since it depends on prolonged absence of oxygen contact) can reveal hidden treasures; therefore I tend not to consider it as a defect. It is difficult to explain because it represents an alteration, i.e. an elusive sensation with no clear-cut (albeit reversible) recognition.

On the contrary, oxidative hints are unbearable except in the presence of technically intentional oxidation, as in the case of Madeira, Port, but also Tuscan Vin Santo, the one that becomes good with biscuits dipped in it. Reduction - which, I repeat, does not usually seem to me to be a defect - at a very advanced stage is expressed 'on the nose' through evident hints of eggs, sometimes of cheese; in short, all the stuff we would not want to find in the glass. Oxidation, on the other hand, moves on to clearer and more irreversible olfactory connotations such as soup or glutamate which, in contact with oxygen, slip more heavily with their foot in the grave.