Getting Corky
Zin Fan D. asked in the comment section, "When the sommelier (don't think I've ever had a real sommelier, only a standard-issue waiter or waitress) presents the cork for my inspection, what am I supposed to do with it, and why?"
Great question! I was actually planning on addressing this topic in the not-too-distant future, but there is no time better than the present (and how many more cliches can I fit into one post anyway?).
Popular thought might suggest that one is to rather dramatically smell the cork. What wondrous insights might you divine from such olfactory analysis, you might be thinking?
Not a lot, to tell you the truth. You'll probably get a musty and woody smell from every single cork you smell - yes, cork is made of wood, and yes, all wine undergoes a bit of organic development, even in the bottle (alcohol is a slightly beneficial byproduct, haha). But in the end, smelling the cork is an utter waste of your time.
The presentation process engages at least three of your senses - smell, taste and vision (and you could argue that touch is in the mix as well). Smelling the cork only engages one, and not very well at that. You can't really get a sense if a wine has gone bad by smelling the cork, and many good wines can show some mold on the cork.
But there is one very important observation that you can make by examining the cork - checking to see that it matches the bottle from which it was taken. While it is highly unlikely, the possibilty exists that the wine that you just dropped a ton of money on is a fake, and the first clue is a blank or mismatched cork.
That assumes that you know what the cork is supposed to look like, though. Oh, and I should add that I *always* smell the cork, even though I know I shouldn't. Maybe I should say that I do it BECAUSE I know I shouldn't. I'm a punk.
Great question! I was actually planning on addressing this topic in the not-too-distant future, but there is no time better than the present (and how many more cliches can I fit into one post anyway?).
Popular thought might suggest that one is to rather dramatically smell the cork. What wondrous insights might you divine from such olfactory analysis, you might be thinking?
Not a lot, to tell you the truth. You'll probably get a musty and woody smell from every single cork you smell - yes, cork is made of wood, and yes, all wine undergoes a bit of organic development, even in the bottle (alcohol is a slightly beneficial byproduct, haha). But in the end, smelling the cork is an utter waste of your time.
The presentation process engages at least three of your senses - smell, taste and vision (and you could argue that touch is in the mix as well). Smelling the cork only engages one, and not very well at that. You can't really get a sense if a wine has gone bad by smelling the cork, and many good wines can show some mold on the cork.
But there is one very important observation that you can make by examining the cork - checking to see that it matches the bottle from which it was taken. While it is highly unlikely, the possibilty exists that the wine that you just dropped a ton of money on is a fake, and the first clue is a blank or mismatched cork.
That assumes that you know what the cork is supposed to look like, though. Oh, and I should add that I *always* smell the cork, even though I know I shouldn't. Maybe I should say that I do it BECAUSE I know I shouldn't. I'm a punk.
posted by Kristian Twombly at 8:23 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for the lucid explanation. Smelling the cork will cease to be an issue when the switch has been made 100 percent to synthetic corks and/or screwtops. In the meantime, I'll continue to sniff.
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