A few months back, my partner and I were cordially invited to a friendly, weekly wine dinner at a popular East Village restaurant. The place is known for its great wine list and an incredibly fair corkage policy, a situation that encourages people to bring very nice wines to share with each other — at a fraction of the cost of the same wine on a fine dining list. We were in for a good night of some fabulous wine.

The group was made up of three general types of people: serious connoisseurs, passive drinkers, and a few industry professionals for good measure. Being served was a mix of bottles from the list along with those from the attendees’ private collections and some bought from wine shops on the way to the dinner. 

Overall it was a great experience, but also I was left with a sense of bewilderment at the behavior of the “serious connoisseur” group, which I’ve not been able to shake since. A stunning level of shame, blame, and anxiety was centered on the fear of their wine contributions being flawed, regardless of whether they were.

What struck me was the difference in how non-professionals versus those in the industry react in this sort of circumstance. I thought it might be worth discussing the experience to hopefully assuage some of those fears for those who’ve ever found themselves in similar situations or just need reassurance that wine is meant to be fun.

It seemed that most of those serious wine lovers took it personally if their wine was not in perfect condition. Like the five stages of grief, I watched them cycle through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. There were a lot of emotional gymnastics being performed for what should have been a lighthearted good time.

The more confident of the bunch claimed outright denial that a flaw existed, took it personally when the fault was commented on, and then offered a deflection of whose fault it was, as if anyone sitting there was to blame. That seemed to set off everyone else into a tizzy of fear that their own bottles might also not be perfect, and that that was some sort of reflection on them as people.

Wine flaws come in many forms and can be detected by a range of off-flavors and textures. They can be inflicted on an entire batch of wine or a single bottle. Their occurrence can appear all along the production chain, from farming, winemaking, maturation, and bottling to transportation and storage. Different people have different levels of tolerance or aversion to each; one person’s flaw can be another person’s favorite feature. Some people are just not sensitive enough, or don’t care enough, to have any flaws bother them at all.

Improper storage is the only way a consumer can inflict a flaw on a wine. Wine is a living thing that requires care and attention should you choose to hang on to it for more than a day. You need to account for temperature, light, vibration, and humidity. The longer you keep it, the more rigid you will need to be in your storage.

Ideally, for long-term storage (more than three months), you want a wine fridge that doesn’t vibrate, is set between 40 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit, has a door that filters out UV light, and allows bottles with corks to lie on their sides. 

Vibration causes chemical reactions that lead to dull aromas and flavors; high temperatures cook wine, leaving baked, raisiny, jammy fruit. UV will dull flavors and then lead to very off aromas, like cabbage, sewage, and rotten eggs. Corks need to be kept wet and humid to ensure they don’t dry out and shrink, which can allow the ingress of oxygen. Oxidized wines can mute fruit and then become nutty, jammy, caramelized, or turn to vinegar.

In professional circles, wines that are not sound are just the cost of doing business. These days, as hygiene and technology in wine are widespread, there is less flawed wine than ever in the history of wine. As buyers, we taste wines to ensure that there are no surprises, but the vast majority of what we taste is sound. 

When my colleagues or I deduce a bottle is not in perfect condition, it engenders friendly debate, not blame. What is the nature of the flaw? The cause? The tolerance of said flaw for everyone tasting? Then, the wine is pushed to the side and another bottle is opened. 

Depending on the type of flaw, it can influence our buying decisions in the future. We may need to taste another bottle or a subsequent vintage, purchase from a different supplier, or avoid collections that are not being stored properly. 

Rarely will you ever be seated with the person responsible, and if you were, it would be pretty bad form to call them on it. If you stored your bottle correctly, you can rest assured that anything else “off” about the wine is not your fault. There is too much great wine in the world to worry over a bad bottle. Just toss it, open something else, and enjoy.