Two Problems -- Same Solution

 

Recently I opened the bottle of Hardys 1997 Eileen Shiraz, and to say the least, it was stinky. When I opened a previous bottle in April 2004, I noted that the wine had an unusual aroma and was possibly suffering from a little Brett. On that occasion, as the wine was being drunk by a number of people, unfortunately it didn't have a chance to breath, and as a result, I was never actually sure of the exact problem with that bottle.

 

At first, the recently opened bottle was suffering from a pretty severe dose of “McLaren Vale bottle stink” but I was hopeful it would blow off, so the wine was immediately decanted. The aroma seems quite reductive and not exactly pleasant, it was worse on the nose than the palate.

 

To make matters more confusing, on one of my previous trips to McLaren Vale I opened a bottle of this wine to enjoy with the Pie King and the smell did not blow off; it actually got worse. The wine was returned to the winery the next day and they confirmed it had a fault that was not cork related. So were the previously opened bottles suffering from a problem that had gone right through the batch or not?

 

After an hour, the stink had dissipated a little on the bouquet, and although it was still noticeable on the palate, the wine was drinkable; indeed reasonably enjoyable despite the obnoxious aroma. Powdery tannins provided a solid backbone and were resolving well. The fruit was deep and the wine finished with both good persistence and length, finishing very dry. The flavour profile had good complexity; multiple dark fruit flavours, noticeable savoury blackberry, a touch of mint, attractive chocolate but it was definitely impacted by “something." At this point in time, I had no idea if this was what the wine maker had intended or the wine was faulty.

 

After two and a half hours in the decanter, most of the bottle stink had blown off and the wine was pleasant, even though it had a slight reductive character to it. In this case, the wine clearly needed to be decanted for some time to show its best; however had this wine been sealed under Stelvin, I am fairly confident it would have been undrinkable. And that brings me to the second problem, but first some background.

 

In a two-week period in October I opened twenty six bottles of wine of which nineteen were sealed with Cork. Of the nineteen bottles that were sealed with tree bark, five of them had a cork related problem and after a number of similar experiences, it's fair to say that I hate the negative impact that cork can have on good wine. By the same token, whilst screw caps do have their place and in many instances are better than cork, they are not a perfect solution in all cases, nor are they the panacea that some people would like you to believe.

 

Even the most diehard supporter of Stelvins will concede that red wine sealed under a screw cap is likely to take longer to mature than the same wine sealed under cork. This is one aspect I'm beginning to see as negative. Let's face it, the vast majority of wine is consumed within a few hours of purchase and very little wine has a chance to develop any real bottle age. Many wineries are under enormous financial pressure and try to get their wine into market as soon as it’s bottled, although some wineries do hold stock back until it has a little bottle age.

 

From the samples I'm seeing, and admittedly this is anecdotal evidence and not hard fact; young wines that have been sealed under Stelvin tend to be shy and take a lot longer to open up in the glass than wines of the same age that have been bottled under cork. With all samples that are sent to me, the wines are opened, poured into glasses and allowed to get some air for at least two or three hours before they are actually tasted. After about half an hour in the glass, I normally take a quick preliminary look at the bouquet and start making notes. I normally go back and check the wines two or three times to see how the bouquet is developing and after two or three hours, the wines that were sealed under cork normally provide a fair indication of their true character.

 

In many cases, the same thing cannot be said for wine sealed under screw caps. It frequently can take these wines five hours, or even longer for these wines to show their true character.

 

The concern here is that the majority of red wine is consumed within a few hours of purchase; and of course, red wine purchased in restaurants is normally “attacked” as soon as the bottle is open. In a restaurant situation, the chances are the Stelvin sealed wine will be finished and filtered through the kidneys, before the required time had passed that would have given the wine a chance to open up and reveal itself. If the wine is an easy drinking, crowd-pleasing red that is sealed under cork, and much of the wine sold in restaurants fall into that category; breathing is not an issue.  In time, what may be more of a worry, especially to those that cellar wines to allow aged characters develop; is that many producers will change their wine style and make their wines more approachable when young to offset the effect of the ROTE seal.

 

At home, the situation may not be as bad. With a little planning and forethought the problem can be overcome or reduced. Simply decide which wine you are going to drink, and if it is a young wine sealed in a screw cap, or indeed a slightly older wine that will benefit from decanting, if possible, go to the trouble of decanting the wine in advance, because the benefits are well and truly worth it.