What are your worst experiences with wine faults?

[daz]

I experienced massive TCA infection in, I think, a 2002 Mangan blend from Cullen - pretty sure it was the second vintage of that wine - the absolute worst I've ever encountered. Almost as bad was a bottle of the inaugural vintage of Cullen DM 2001. No wonder the majority of, if not all, Cullen wines are now sealed under screwcap.

[Mark Carrington]

Re-fermented Shiraz.

[simon1980]

Grange '86. Only the second time I'd tried Grange, and it was at a friend's house (who put me under the pressure of extracting the cork...which broke off). Oxidised / heat damaged...not sure...but a disaster. Soon rectified with an '85 Grange, which was stunning.

simon1980

[griff]

Re-fermented Shiraz.

Sparkling cabernet more your style Mark?

[Chuck]

Corks in general. At least with screwcaps you know exactly how it will taste.

Over the past couple of weeks I drank 3 bottles of the same wine from 2001 under cork and all 3 were different with only one considered acceptable. Not corked just random variability. I wonder if wine was invented today would they consider using bark off a tree to seal them. Methinks not.

Oh and an aged Clare riesling was corked enough to scalp the fruit.

So 3 out of 4 recent wines under cork were affected although I would agree this is not the norm but still very annoying.

Carl

[daz]

James Halliday has been a strong proponent of screwcap seals for some years now, probably with good reason. We can barely begin to imagine the number of wines of diminished quality due to cork seals that he's tasted.

[TravisW]

Here's a good experience.

We had a bottle of Petaluma Coonawarra '95 on Saturday night with a few friends over dinner. Slight touch of TCA on the nose and a little stripped on the palate. My wife couldn't see it, so we duly served it and the bottle went down a treat.

I pinged Petaluma's cellar door on Monday to ask them if they had received any TCA feedback re the 95. This AM I received a lovely email from Monique saying that they hadn't but that didn't mean that it didn't have TCA taint. She kindly offered to replace it with a 2010 and to test the remains of the 95. I turned her offer down as we polished the bottle off, but thanked her for the offer. Nice one Petaluma.

Cheers, Travis.

[Blesso]

I've had a pretty bad run lately;
Bin 707 1996 (cooked)
Bin 707 1994 (TCA, replaced by Penfolds with a 2010 as this one was mine)
Wendouree Cab Sav 1995 (cooked)
Rosemount Mountain Blue 1996 (TCA)
Wynns Black Label 2002 (TCA)
The majority of these were from auction...needless to say I don't really buy from auction any more!

[daz]

I've had a pretty bad run lately;
Bin 707 1996 (cooked)
Bin 707 1994 (TCA, replaced by Penfolds with a 2010 as this one was mine)
Wendouree Cab Sav 1995 (cooked)
Rosemount Mountain Blue 1996 (TCA)
Wynns Black Label 2002 (TCA)
The majority of these were from auction...needless to say I don't really buy from auction any more!

I've never bought auctioned wines, always seemed to be a lucky dip but I have bought a few wines directly from the winery that have been TCA affected.