What Do you Do if You're Faced With a Tainted Wine?

More importantly will you know that you have aThat's not a small number in the larger picture, so
tainted wine on your hands? The best thing that Iif you look at it logically, at some point in time
can tell you is that your nose will know theyou're bound to hit that magical number one
difference in the wines even if you don'ttainted wine.
immediately recognize it for what it is. Bad winesYour nose will be able to tell you if its a tainted
can and will occur at some point in time when youwine more readily than your other senses so you
buy a wine, and the only thing you can do is toreally should listen to it as much as you can. For
not drink it and return it if you can.instance, if your freshly uncorked wine smells of
If you're in a good restaurant, this will definitely bemold or mildew, or even if it has a musty smell,
possible as the sommelier will know thatit's a definite sign that its a tainted wine. This can
occurencs of tainted wine can happen and thathappen if the cork interacted with outside
wines can go off due to any number of reasons.contaminants before corking the wine bottle.
Don't just cringe and drink up just because youOn the other hand if you get a sour smell, and
paid for the bottle, return it immediately, and theupon examination your wine shows a slight
sommelier will probably be more than happy todiscoloration to it, then there's a good chance that
replace it for you.you wine has passed its prime. And latterly, you
If you bought tainted wine from a wine merchantmight find that your wine has a slight chemical
then there's a good chance that they might alsosmell to it. That's because the grape has at some
take it back from you. This isn't always a givenpoint or other been contaminated with pesticides
though and depends entirely on the merchant.and the like, and this has come through into the
Otherwise you can just chalk it all up towine.
experience and water the sink with the wine.This reason for a tainted wine isn't as common as
It's an astonishing fact that as many as one inthe first type that I told you about, which is also
twenty bottles of wine will be a tainted wine.commonly referred to, as cork taint.