Puzzled by a first for me this evening. I opened a youngish California Pinot Noir and as I pulled the cork a small gush of wine came to the surface and overflowed the bottle. The wine smelled fine. A small pour showed no effervescence at all. The wine tasted OK, but was a little on the sweet side to my taste with some spice but minimal acidity. Unusual drops of the wine hung on the inside of the wine glass after sips. Drinkable for certain, even fair to decent, but something odd in the balance of the wine. Additionally the taste of the wine literally disappeared when I had it with a hamburger - almost like flavored water. In contrast a small glass of a Fleurie with the same meal showed well by itself and was great with the burger. Any ideas of what I encountered with this Pinot Noir? Thanks.
I guess that PN was just happy to see me !?
Never heard of this. Sorry, I can’t offer any insights.
+1
Oddly enough I had this happen once before, maybe a year and a half ago when I was just getting more serious with wine. It was a still Italian red (90% certain on country) and I have no idea what happened. Ordered it from EmpireWine and popped it the day I received it in Denver and chalked it up to a pressure issue.
Pressurized at bottling with inert gas?
Maybe small headspace and tight cork, when you pulled the cork it created a suction that drew some wine out with it. The rest of it is probably just the wine and unrelated.
-Al
Thanks Al. This actually makes a lot of sense to me. Although I did not check the head space the cork was especially tight. A glass of that same wine tonight was a lot more pleasant, so the wine may have not been ready to show last night. Finally, the droplets on the inside of the wine glass that puzzled me last night may have been a washing issue (probably was my turn to wash!). Mystery solved I believe. Cheers. -Jim
Yes, I think Al is on to something, periodically if I pull a cork out and at the last bit of the pulling I get lazy and pull it to the side wine seems to spill out. If I pull the cork straight up and out there is never an issue
Funny I had this happen a week or so ago. And it has happened a few times. At first I thought it was because of the travel from the offsite – but that has not always been the circumstance. The suction hypothesis makes sense to me. It has happened rarely, but definitely at least three times. I never detected any flaw in those wines.
Sometimes you get a sucky cork.