| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, or "Vinny" for short. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the technical aspects of winemaking to the fine points of etiquette. I hope you find my answers educational and even amusing. Want to see more of them? Check out my archive. And here are my most Frequently Asked Questions.
Dear Dr. Vinny,
I ordered a young French Pinot Noir. I became aware of its arrival as the cork appeared before me. I ritually took a sniff and was hit by the complex aroma of cardboard, layered with damp work-dirty socks, with putrid moldy notes. Before I could stop them, a taste was sloshed into my glass. Out of politeness I swirled—steadied myself—and took a whiff. Although unsophisticated, it was pretty, with floral perfume and bold fruit notes. Did they open the bottle in the kitchen and bring me the wrong cork?
—Philip, Burlingame, Calif.
Dear Philip,
Some people like to sniff the cork, but others don't bother. If you decide to sniff the cork, you have to remember that the way the cork smells doesn't necessary correlate with how the wine will taste. I've had perfectly tasty wines bottled with funky-smelling corks, and awful wines with corks that smelled just fine. That's why we're offered a taste of the wine to assess its merit, rather than basing our decision simply on the cork presented to us.
—Dr. Vinny
Do you have a question for me? Fire away!
Advertisement
