untrained palate

[ms67]

Hi all, i have a problem and i hope your expertise can help me out

sometime ago i bottled a dj of beaverdale shiraz. the first 4 bottles went down fine. tonight i opened the 5th, the cork was partly green (mould?) and dry, despite being stored for the entirerity on it's side. It doesn't taste bad, but herein lies the clue to the title of the thread.

to my untrained/uneducated palate it just tastes like a kinda watered down shiraz. Not dry enough, not alcoholic enough, plenty fruit (but not overly so like a runaway ester > something nasty reaction), even some sweetness is there, maybe a little thin. Pours fine, not ropey, crystal clear, no sediment. Really can't put my finger on it, but it's just not right and its not a marginal thing, its way not right. but it doesn't taste bad (i.e no obvious vinegar or other off tastes). we (3 of us) drank 2 bottles of country wines before this one and were expecting this to follow on nicely from a straight blackberry - drier, more body/complexity etc. but it didn't at all.

so the question is, what am i experiencing? is this what is known as a wine being corked? if so i'm surprised that it's this subtle, i.e. doesn't taste off but would nevertheless like to know if this is the fault. it tastes almost like it has half fermented, but that's absurd because it came from the same DJ as the previous 4 bottles, and all finished fermenting months ago! I have drunk nearly half a bottle and can't nail why it tastes wrong despite being not right. One other agrees with me but cant nail it, and a third is kinda neutral and can't make her mind up. I'm sure its not a residual effect caused by drinking the previous wines as we have had way less than we can normally cope with and still be able to discern a fault

i'd love to hear your thoughts, cos something ain't right and i ain't got a clue!

[Richard S]

You say that you had been drinking country wines before hand, were they sweet wines? The strong flavours and sweetness levels of the other wines could have disturbed your pallette. When wines are judged, the way to go is to start with lighter dry wines and move on to the heavier bodied sweeter wines. Having said this, there could have been something wrong with the Shiraz, hopefully if it is a problem it is limited to just the one bottle.

[ms67]

Indeed Richard, we were working our way through to heavier wines. White to fruity blackberry to shiraz. I can only guess it was not unrelated to the crappy cork. i think i'll have to rummage about online a bit and find out about corked wine and the flavours/qualities/faults to look out for when this happens. Thanks for your thoughts tho

[P cuthbert]

One thing to remember about wine is that it changes as time progresses.

You may have found a bottle that is in the middle of a change that makes it less than "perfect". This does not mean that the wine will be bad in a week or a month, but it may be developing a complexity that it did not have heretofore.

The progress of wine development can be likened to the changing tides. It goes through cycles.

This is why it is essential that your taste any wines you intend to put forward for judging. The wine may not be "spot on" this month, but in a future life, it mey be an exceptional medal winner.

[ms67]

Thanks for those thoughts P. The Shiraz in question isn't a year old yet and you may be right there as its still young.

A little homebrew related chatter follows if you are interested.
My Dads visit is over now. We had a half dozen or so bottles of homebrew and only that one questionable one. Probably the best one to have it with as i take more pride in my country wines than kits. His verdict was as follows:

Cheapskate rose: His favourite and he compared the quality very favourably to a matteus rose or a zinfandel. Not a bad result for cartons of cheapo juice chucked onto the yeast/oakchips dropped by the shiraz kit.
Tanglefoot: His favourite til he tried the rose, compared it to an italian white but couldn't remember which one!
Green Tea and Ginger: Perhaps a bit ambitious of me to lay this one on him as his first, but while he appreciated its qualities and said he would drink it again he also said it wasn't his thing. He found the ginger subtle and would have it with more ginger flavours coming through.
Blackberry (08): Was ok to him, impressed with clarity and colour. Better suited to him than the GT&G.
Beavredale Shiraz: You all know that story by now

We had a curry out last night, took along the rose to drink with poppadoms while we perused the menu. They were very nice in there, allowed us to drink it, didn't even charge corkage. They knew we were gonna order a bottle from them anyway, i guess that helped. Dad's choice, a cotes du rhone (2006). The oldest wine i have drunk for some years i think! And we don't normally drink old world wines either, so it was a nice change and gave us an indication of his tastes.

He asked to take a bottle of rose with him, the best compliment you can get as a homebrewer i reckon. And enjoyed being passed a tanglefoot aswell. Sadly the rest of the rose is in a DJ, but happily it'll mean there's some for his next visit.