Tonight I experienced one of the many things that can happen when you open a bottle of wine. Instead of being met with the scent of something exciting and new, I was met with something that smelled old and tired. Sometimes a bottle is full of wine that has become less than pleasant. Whether it is from 'cork taint' (aka 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA)), oxidation or any other various wine maladies, a bottle of wine can sometimes be far from perfect just on a technical perspective. We are not talking about wine that is subjectively good or bad. We are talking about wine that has a fault the size of the San Andreas Fault (aka largest fault in the World) and is not good on any level.
To me thought it is this chance that gives wine a certain I don't know what, (aka je ne sais quoi) that makes it a bit more beguiling than other beverages. If you want to be rewarded when you open a bottle of a wine with a something much better and/or interesting than you had originally thought or hoped, you must also be willing to suffer the disappointment of a promising bottle gone bad. To know the thrill of victory is to know the sting of defeat. With wine sometimes you end up with a freshly opened bottle of wine and empty glasses as the wine in the bottle has ceased to be and will offer up none of its intended promise. Then sometimes you open a bottle of wine you have never had before or an older wine you know and you are swept off your feet by a wine that could bring a tear to your eye and a heavy relaxing sigh after each sip. If you are going to drink wine and hope to have new and different experiences you must be willing to understand that you take the good, you take the bad (aka The Facts of Life).
