With a familiar wine, it is easy to detect an off-smell or a funky taste. Winemakers always notice something unusual about their own wines, as do most tasting room hosts.

With an unfamiliar wine, it is not always so easy. My husband and I love trying new wines, and on a good number of occasions we’ve wondered: is the Syrah we’ve just purchased intentionally made rustic, or does it have too much brett and so is flawed? Or, are the notes of baked apples in this dry Chenin a sign of premature aging, or is it winemaker’s style?

So how do we tell apart an intentional style in wine from a flawed execution?

– Read full post on Wine Women’s blog.