Identifying Cooked Wine
Most wine drinkers can tell if a wine is “corked” but what about “cooked”? If you have no idea what I’m writing about, then you need to check out the 30 Second Wine Advisor’s guide.
Heat can damage wine and can be a challenge to recognize at times, especially since it can actually improve a wine if done properly. A little amount of heat applied for a short wine can actually improve a wine, enhancing the fruit profile. Some wineries even supposedly flash-heat their wines to do this, though the effects are not long-lasting. Heat will eventually cause your wine to fall apart, possibly due to either the heat killing the wine itself or damaging the cork.
However, how do you tell that if your wine’s been cooked? Sometimes, the foil is glued tight against the bottle with dried wine due to a damaged cork. The cork may also seem unusually soft, spongy, and dry. It could also be stained with wine. The wine itself could taste off. It may oftentimes still be potable (or even better as mentioned before).
