Tartaric Acid

Have you ever opened up a bottle of wine only to panic when pulling out the cork, because it looks like it’s covered with tiny shards of broken glass? Fearing an unsalvageable bottle, thanks to poor handling or, even worse, user error, you look even closer. Then on closer inspection, with relief, you discover that it’s not glass, but tiny little crystals that have materialized on the cork.

“Wine diamonds,” as they are known to seasoned oenophiles, are actually crystalized compounds of tartaric acid, reacting with potassium. And rather than serving as an indication of flawed wine, these crystals actually serve as proof that a wine has been less heavily manipulated. Even though these tiny crystals, which form spontaneously when tartaric acid and potassium bind under chilly conditions, are harmless, since many people react out of concern when they see them, certain producers act to ensure that they can never, ever materialize. Read the rest of this entry »

TCA, or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, has long been a scourge of wine consumers, retailers, producers– practically anyone with any sort of relationship to wine. This chemical, which is formed when naturally occurring airborne fungi come into contact with chlorophenol compounds, causes wines to become corked. Anyone who’s begun to drink wine with regularity knows the phenomenon: with great anticipation, you pop open a new bottle of wine, pour a glass, and stick your nose up to it– only to catch that overwhelming scent of a wet basement.

Estimates vary about the prevalence of TCA tainted bottles: the cork industry reports that only around one percent of bottles are contaminated, but a 2005 test of 2800 bottles at Wine Spectator’s tasting facilities showed that seven percent of the bottles were corked. That’s a lot of tainted bottles. Consequently, winemakers have long sought solutions: from screw-top, “Stelvin” closures, to synthetic corks, to glass closures. Read the rest of this entry »

Studies on the relationship between the price and appreciation of wine are coming in faster than I can process them. Disappointingly, the most recent one that I’ve read doesn’t involve any convoluted mechanisms for consuming wine; I was looking forward to seeing what unconventional procedures the experts would come up with next.

This study has also received more press than the others I’ve seen so far, because it’s at the core of a heavily promoted book called The Wine Trials by Robin Goldstein. I haven’t had a chance to look at the book, but the promotional materials suggests that Goldstein has an agenda to push. Specifically, it appears that he’s looking to make a name for himself by assaulting the conventional wisdom that more expensive wine is necessarily better. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve already talked a bit about the tenuous connection between price and quality that exists when purchasing wine. To recap, a number of economists have concluded that factors apart from the quality of a wine (as determined by expert taste tests) have a greater influence on the price of a bottle of wine.

But research from another side of the academy suggests that the price of wine may actually influence how people enjoy wine. It’s fairly easy to accept the idea that people might claim that they liked an expensive wine more than a cheaper wine. People still associate price with quality, and don’t necessarily want to admit they were incapable of telling the difference between a good wine and a mediocre wine. This axiom is easy to identify: When in doubt, prefer the expensive one, especially if you spent your own hard-earned money on it. Read the rest of this entry »