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Booze by Geoff Last Currently it is estimated that as much as 10 per cent of all the wine in the world suffers from a flaw known as TCA (2,4,6, -trichloranisole) or – in laymen’s terms – corkiness. Math has never been my strong suit, but when you consider that the world now produces over eight million gallons of wine a year, well, that adds up to a lot of bad wine. To make matters worse, TCA is only one of many flaws known to contaminate a wine – other common problems include secondary fermentation, oxidation, reduction, mycoderma, volatile acidity, brettanomyces, and the list goes on and on. So who is drinking all of this bad wine? Surely we, the public, are not forking out our hard-earned dollars for defective wine? The short answer is that, yes, in many instances we are. The problem is twofold. On one hand, most flawed wine is still drinkable and harmless when taken internally. On the other hand, there are many people who mistake a fault in a wine as an undesirable flavour profile. It is for this reason that is important for people to be able to recognize a "corked" wine – a winery would much rather incur the cost of replacing some bad bottles than have people thinking that their wine naturally smells like a wet dog and tastes like a cardboard box (two attributes often associated with a badly corked wine). Corkiness is, by far, the main culprit when it comes to a faulty wine. It cannot be detected until the wine has been bottled and the liquid comes into contact with the cork. It occurs in wines at all levels of quality and price, and has yet to succumb to the marvels of technology. Think of it as the common cold of the wine world, except that, unlike a cold, it does not get better with time. Many wineries have been experimenting with alternatives to natural cork, such as elaster polymers, which work well, but at this point, how well a plastic cork will perform over time is unknown. Most producers of fine wines are reluctant to use a plastic cork because they just don’t cut it in restaurant applications. Can you picture someone ordering an expensive bottle of wine and then having the waiter hand them a plastic cork for inspection? It would come across as being contrary to the romantic notion of the sharing of wine. Once you have smelled and tasted a corked wine, it becomes a fairly easy problem to recognize. The whole rigmarole of pouring a small amount of wine into a glass (always to the person who ordered the bottle) is solely for the purpose of assessment. Give it a little swirl and stick your nose right in the glass. The first sign of corkiness is a musty smell reminiscent of wet cardboard. It is easier to pick out in white wine rather than red, but occurs equally in both. That same musty smell will also be evident in the taste. Try to imagine what a damp basement might taste like. If you are still unsure, have someone else at the table try it. If you are in a fine dining establishment, your server should possess a good level of wine knowledge and be able to confirm your initial assessment. More importantly, don’t be afraid to send a wine back if you think it is off. There is absolutely no reason to endure a faulty wine, especially at restaurant prices. In any case, the restaurant can return the wine to the supplier for compensation, as can a retailer. The staff at any decent wine shop will be all too familiar with a corked wine, and should readily replace the bottle after confirming it is, in fact, corked. There are other problems that can affect a wine, but they tend to be very infrequent. A hazy or cloudy wine can indicate the growth of micro-organisms or bacteria, or the presence of proteins from improper stabilization. If a still wine contains bubbles, this can indicate the start of a secondary fermentation. Most of these problems can be rectified in the winery, and as such, are quite rare. Above all, remember that all wines are susceptible to these problems, and one bad grape does not spoil the whole bunch. Most wineries go to great lengths to avoid such problems, and there are rumours that a solution to the cork problem is at hand – it’s just a matter of time. Cheers! Wine Stage: Calgary’s second annual Wine Stage runs this year on September 22 and 23 at The Performing Arts Centre. Tickets are $45 for either night, and it features over 70 unique wines and food from some of Calgary’s finest wine shops and restaurants. Tickets are available at the following wine shops: Richmond Hill Wines, The Wine Shop, Metrovino, Kensington Wine Market, J. Webb Wine Merchant, The Banff Wine Store, and the One Yellow Rabbit box office.

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