Wierd tasting room experience

[Jenise]

Was in a tasting room this past weekend, and a gentleman who introduced himself as the winery's sale manager poured for us. This is a higher end winery in its area, price-wise, and we were there because I'd had one of two most expensive wines in a restaurant and wanted to buy some for my cellar, and I said so off the top.

When I put the glass of maybe the fourth or fifth wine he poured for me down and said quietly, with an apologetic grimace, "it's corked", I was not surprised that the guy smelled it, then put my glass way down at the end of other the counter with the bottle, across whose label he scribbled something we could not read, and got out a new bottle. What WAS surprising, however, was what happened next: my friend Ines held up her glass and said, "mine's not corked, is it?" I smelled it and no, definitely not. "Must be a different bottle," we concluded--highly likely in fact because there were 14 of us and another couple in the tasting room. Nope, said guy, same bottle.

"Impossible, mine's clearly corked and hers isn't," I said. And Ines said, "Let me smell her glass again." The guy said, "I don't know where it is." I pointed to it down the counter and he said, "no, that's not it." And I said it was, and that it was standing next to the bottle he removed from the line-up, to which he just shrugged and glared. That was it, case over, end of discussion.

Now what in the heck was THAT all about? TCA happens. We're adults, we know this. He could tell we knew our way around wine and we hadn't run out of the tasting room screaming, so why pretend to us, lie even, that what we knew to be true wasn't? It was like there was a mandate in place, some kind of gag order, that no corked bottle ever be acknowledged in their tasting room no matter how foolish they looked in so achieving.

I just don't get it.

If I got story straight:

If he was correct about same bottle, then all I can guess is a bad rinse on your glass?

If he was incorrect, you're right it's silly to act as if a corked bottle is a bad reflection on the winery (well, other than not choosing screwcaps ). But I think most wineries have had enough bad experiences with folks assuming its their fault to just try and pretend it never happened. I bet if you did a poll of 16 people, not all would know the chances of corked wines are random.

[Jenise]

But the glass wasn't rinsed, Dale, it was the same glass I'd already tasted four or five wines out of.

So yeah, the latter.

You could well be right about how few people understand that corkiness is random, or confuse it with winery-wide brett infections. Hadn't thought of that.

I was at a blind Zinfandel tasting last week and the same thing happened: Same wine, two different bottles. One was off-tasting and the other was much better. Neither glass was that great of a Zin, but you could tell there was a big difference.

And [I swear by God as my judge] they were both screwcapped wine bottles from the same winery, same Zin, same vintage.

Just a guess, but maybe something happened during the bottling. Perhaps an interruption in the bottling or the cap wasn't applied to the bottle correctly....or, in your case, the cork.

[Jenise]

Tim, I guess I didn't tell the story very well since I confused both you and Dale, but this was definitely TCA. In my glass that is, not Ines', which had come from a different bottle though the pourer denied it. And he obviously agreed that it was corked because he removed the bottle and scribbled all over it, though seconds later he pretended otherwise. It was just stupid, almost childish, behavior.

Jenise, I understood the story the way you meant it. I can only explain the pourer's actions if he thought most folks don't/can't identify corked wines.

If that's his thinking, misguided in my opinion, he should have put the bottle away out of sight, and only brought it out after you and your group had left.

Just a guess at what he thought he was doing. Stupid strategy though, again in my opinion.

REgards, Bob

Tim, I guess I didn't tell the story very well since I confused both you and Dale, but this was definitely TCA. In my glass that is, not Ines', which had come from a different bottle though the pourer denied it. And he obviously agreed that it was corked because he removed the bottle and scribbled all over it, though seconds later he pretended otherwise. It was just stupid, almost childish, behavior.

Fair enough.

I just misread your post.


And I agree....childish, at best.