WSET® Level 4 D1 Wine Production > D1 Faults > Flashcards

D1 Faults Flashcards

Detailed information about faults found in wine. (19 cards)

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1
Q

List 9 major faults found in wine today.

A
  1. Cloudiness/haze;
  2. Tartrates;
  3. Refermentation in the bottle;
  4. Cork taint;
  5. Oxidation;
  6. Volatile acidity;
  7. Reduction;
  8. Light strike;
  9. Brettanomyces.
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2
Q

Give four reasons wine can be cloudy / hazy after bottling.

A
  1. Growth of yeast or bacteria;
  2. Failure to filter (or the wine was filtered inadequately);
  3. Wrong type of fining agent was used;
  4. Wine was over-fined, causing the remaining proteins in the wine to become unstable.
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3
Q

Name five ways to avoid cloudiness / haze in a finished wine.

A
  1. Improve hygiene in the winery;
  2. Pre-bottling chemical analysis;
  3. Proper filtering;
  4. Use correct fining agent;
  5. Not over-fining.
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4
Q

Why are tartrates seen as a fault to some wine drinkers?

A

Even though tartrates are completely harmless and naturally precipitate out of wine when it is held at a sustained cool temperature, tartrates look like foreign objects in the wine, namely shards of glass or large sugar crystals, which puts off some wine drinkers.

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5
Q

If you opened a wine that has a slight prickle or spritz to it which the wine isn’t supposed to have, and the wine is also kind of cloudy, what’s happening to the wine?

A

It’s refermenting – the winemaker failed to stabilize and clarify/filter the wine adequately.

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6
Q

How does cork taint present itself in wine?

A
  • Smells like wet, moldy cardboard;
  • Reduces fruit character on the palate;
  • Makes a wine’s finish shorter.
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7
Q

How does oxidation present itself in wine?

A
  • Wine turns brown prematurely;
  • Loss of primary fruit;
  • Vinegary smell.
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8
Q

Give three main reasons why wines suffer from oxidation in the bottle.

A
  1. Faulty bottling;
  2. Poor-quality corks or plastic closures;
  3. Keeping wine for too long when it doesn’t have the quality to age.
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9
Q

Fill in the blanks:

All wines have some level of volatile acidity but excessive amounts give a pungent smell of ______ and/or ______.

A

Nail polish remover; vinegar

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10
Q

What causes volatile acidity to become a fault?

A
  • Active acetic acid bacteria;
  • Inadequate levels of SO2;
  • Excess exposure to oxygen.
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11
Q

Name five ways to avoid volatile acidity from becoming a fault.

A
  1. Sorting fruit to exclude damaged grapes;
  2. Meticulous hygiene in the winery;
  3. Keeping vessels topped up;
  4. Careful racking (to avoid excessive exposure to oxygen);
  5. Maintaining adequate SO2 levels.
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12
Q

What are some odors associated with reduction when it’s considered a fault?

A
  • Onion;
  • Rotten eggs.
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13
Q

What are some odors associated with reduction when it’s not considered a fault?

A
  • Struck match;
  • Smoke.
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14
Q

What are reductive odors caused by?

A
  1. High levels of volatile, reductive sulfur compounds that are produced by yeast under stress (due to low nitrogen levels) during winemaking;
  2. Near-anaerobic environments (no oxygen) during aging in closed vessels, especially during lees aging;
  3. Sometimes these odors evolve when wine is closed with the impermeable type of screw cap.
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15
Q

Name three ways to avoid reduction in wine.

A
  • Ensure yeast has sufficient nutrients and oxygen during the winemaking process;
  • Ensure the must is at an adequate temperature;
  • SO2 may need to be lowered, especially if the closure to be used allows very little oxygen ingress.
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16
Q

What causes light strike?

What does this fault smell like in wine?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Caused by UV radiation and certain wavelengths of visible light that react with certain compounds in the wine to form volatile sulfur compounds;
  • Smells like dirty drains and other sulfuric compounds.
17
Q

What are three ways to avoid light strike?

Study These Flashcards
A
  1. Don’t leave wine in direct sunlight;
  2. Don’t store wine near fluorescent lighting for extended periods;
  3. Bottle wine in dark green and brown glass (wines in clear glass are most likely to be affected).
18
Q

Brettanomyces, which some wine drinkers say can add to a wine’s complexity, becomes a fault when its off-odors dominate a wine.

What does the wine taste like when Brettanomyces is considered a fault?

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A
  • The wine’s fruity flavors are diminished;
  • The acidity and tannins become more prominent;
  • Overbearing notes of animal and farmyard smells.
19
Q

Name four ways to avoid Brettanomyces becoming a fault.

Study These Flashcards
A
  1. Meticulous hygiene in the winery;
  2. Maintaining effective SO2 levels;
  3. Keeping pH levels low;
  4. Keeping the time between the end of alcoholic fermentation and malolactic conversion as short as possible so that SO2 can be added.
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