Wine is a product of nature, human intervention, chemistry, and it’s subject to many outside influences – storage, transport, handling – that can do a number on what’s inside the bottle. In this episode, we cover the main things that could go wrong with wine, how they got there, and what to do about it (where possible)! Photo: Pixabay Shout out to Jamie Goode, the outstanding scientist and wine writer who makes so many complex science concepts so easy to understand. Here is the link to his book, “The Science of Wine from Vine to Glass,”* from which some of the reference materials for the pod were taken. Also to “Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia,” * who (always with the humor of Tom Stevenson) brings up a number of very real faults that a lot of the mainstream wine press forget to mention (sauerkraut, anyone?). Other sources are below!   Here are the show notes: We start with defining what a flaw is in a wine, versus a taint, as defined by Jamie Goode. Then we talk about just plain old sucky wine. Flaw v Taint: Flaw is endemic to the wine, it happened in winemaking or vineyard Taint is from outside winemaking, like from packaging or from the winery We discuss the Japanese concept that talks about how small flaws can accentuate beauty (it is called Wabi-Sabi, the art of imperfection). Not all technical flaws are bad!     NOT FLAWS: Next we tackle things that need to be dealt with, but aren’t flaws or taints: Sediment: What is it? Tannin chains combining and falling out of solution. Looks like your coffee filter threw up or there are brown flakes in the wine. What do you do? Decant, get a filter Sediment on a glass from Canva Images Cork floating in your wine: What is it? User error or an old cork. If you break the cork when you take it out, it may drop some flakes into the wine. If it’s an old cork, this is even more likely! What do you do? Fish it out with you finger, a spoon, or get a filter Film/oily looking stuff on the surface: What is it? Most likely it’s dishwashing soap residue from either glasses or decanter What do you do? Clean your glasses of the residue, send the glass back if you’re in a restaurant. At home, warm water is often good enough to clean wine glasses as long as you have a good brush   Bubblegum, pear drop, nail-polish like aromas: What is it? These aromas come from carbonic maceration, a red winemaking technique where the winemaker ferments the grapes with no oxygen or yeast. Instead they use carbon dioxide to promote the conversion of sugar and malic acid to alcohol. Byproducts of this process are these aromas, and more to boot. Overly cool fermentations can also cause these types of aromas. What do you do? If you hate this, chuck the bottle or give it away and remember you don’t like wines made with carbonic maceration. Never buy Beaujolais Nouveau! Tartrate crystals: What is it? Crystals appear either on the side of the cork that was in contact with the wine or, often, at the bottom of the glass in white wines. Tartaric acid was not fined, filtered or stabilized out so tartaric acid crystals formed and the wine cleaned itself up naturally! What do you do? Dare I say it again? Get a filter and get them out if they are in your wine. If they are on the cork, admire how pretty they are and enjoy the wine. Earthiness, green pepper notes: What is it? Just normal wine flavors. The earthiness could be from terroir or it could be the grape. Green pepper is from a compound called methoxypyrazine that is common in Cabernet Sauvignon and its parents, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc What do you do? If you love it, drink wines with those profiles. If not, there are plenty of wines without these characteristics Before getting into the major faults, I discuss one that is on the line: Cloudy/Hazy wine: If it’s not sediment causing the problem, it could be protein. It may settle out or it may just be part of the