Running a wine faults class can be one of the most eye-opening experiences for wine professionals and enthusiasts. But let?s be honest?it?s not exactly the most hedonistic tasting session. You are training yourself to identify aromas like wet cardboard, band-aid and vinegar: indications of cork taint, Brettanomyces and volatile acidity, respectively.
But here?s the big question: Do you use naturally faulty wines, or spike neutral wines with flavour compounds to replicate the faults? Let?s explore the pros and cons of both approaches?and why a hybrid model might be the most effective.
?Real? wines
We run into faulty wines from time to time. Why not save up these bottles and run a tasting session?
?Pros:
- Authenticity: these examples can be very realistic. If you encounter a wine with noticeable ?Brett?, it is likely in a red wine that has seen some oak. You will practice identification of the fault in the wine style that it is most likely to appear in.
- Variety: Look at various faces of the same wine fault. It could be really interesting to try both a reductive Pinot Noir and a reductive Syrah.
- Economical: Rather than pouring your corked bottle down the drain, you can repurpose it for your wine faults class.
?Cons:
- Lack of comparison: It be difficult to find a point of comparison/an unfaulty reference wine. Sometimes it is possible: in the event of a corked bottle, it can be tasted against an additional bottle of the same wine. But how do you find a wine with Brett and compare it with the same wine without Brett?
- Multiple faults: Faulty wines frequently have more than one fault. For example, wines with high volatile acidity often show notes of oxidation too. Wines with Brett may also show mousiness.
- Inconsistency. Corked wines are chance encounters ? can you know for sure you will have another corked bottle for your next faults class? Also, where can you buy a bottle of smoke-tainted wine?
- Time-consuming prep. Considerable time can go into preparing faulty bottles, such as opening a wine and waiting for it to oxidise, or placing a wine in daylight to make it go lightstruck.
Spiked wines
This method relies on an addition of an individual flavour molecule to a neutral base wine ? molecules such as TCA, 4-EP and ethyl acetate. The spiked wine can then be compared to the same wine without any flavour addition.
?Pros:
- Isolating of faults. You can assess each component of a fault individually. For example, you can break up the fault volatile acidity into its vinegar component and its nail varnish remover component, and try them side-by-side (you can later blend these two samples for the full volatile acidity experience).
- Determining sensitivity. All tasters, at all levels, have certain ?blind spots? in their sense of smell: you are unable to detect specific flavour molecules. By trying individual compounds one at a time, you can figure out your blind spots.
- Time-efficient. Dissolving a flavour compound into a bottle of wine is a matter of minutes.
- Scalability. You could run wine faults classes every day if you wanted to.
?Cons:
- Cost. High-purity, food-grade flavour compounds for educational purposes are highly specialised materials. This is never cheap.
- Not always realistic. Spiked wines are not always representative. Typically, an inexpensive product is used as a base wine. Wine styles in this price category are almost never affected by Brett, for example. Adding Brett-type compounds to an entry-level wine may not give you the most accurate teaching example.
We like to combine both methods: running a session using spiked wines first, then get participants to apply their newly acquired skills by identifying faults in real wines.
Yes, we are biased: we sell flavour compounds related to wine faults! However, we have applied this method over and over, and it is highly effective. Get your flavouring vials here.
Absolutely right.