Faulty Bottle Rates

This one's for the intersection of wine and number geeks and goes outside of my typical Chicago focus.

Inspired by a thread on the Wineberserkers forum, I took a pass at rates of wine bottles with a fault to them.  Many factors could potentially cause a bottle to show poorly--winemaking issues, heat in shipping or storage, cork taint, and many others.  I pulled data from CellarTracker, where users can flag spoiled bottles, to build the tables & charts that follow.

First, I started with a look at whether some regions of the globe are more prone to these issues.  The summary below shows the "Flawed/Defective" rates across Regions.  Given the myriad ways a bottle could be flawed, 1.3% overall doesn't seem too bad, and there is fairly minor variation from that average.




My next step was to look at White Burgundy, where some of the world's best Chardonnay is produced.  Unfortunately, it also has broad notoriety for Premature Oxidation ("premox", "pox"), an issue in which wines advance in age much more quickly than expected.  This can be quite disappointing when opening a bottle after many years of holding in the cellar only to find a flat, unappealing liquid.

Isolating white wine in Burgundy (~100,000 notes in CellarTracker), the flawed rate is 3.42%, two and a half times the norm.  Worth keeping in mind: 2010 White Burgs in CellarTracker have a median price of ~$55.  Premox issues first gained notice with vintages in the mid-nineties; this rise is clearly shown below.




Continuing to look at % of flawed bottles, here looking at % of bottles opened at a given age...we can also see in the colorful chart below that, since the mid-nineties, off bottles become increasingly common past the 5 year mark.  That's not especially great for wines that are frequently hoped to be long-lived and are rarely found in the bargain bin.  Additionally concerning is that, while there is some ebb & flow to the numbers, the problem is not getting convincingly better.
Ex.: Look in the "7" column and you'll see that the 05-07 vintages are not less likely to be flawed than 99-01 were at a similar point of their development.




Lastly, I examined it across producers (admittedly imperfect; my text mining isn't as polished as I would like), finding hundreds of producers--albeit often with limited sample--producing off bottles at rates many multiples above the average.

All data came from CellarTracker, which is a fantastic site, but we should keep in mind that this is crowd-sourced and there may be varying influences on the "Defective" flag--personal experience, style preference, storage conditions, etc.  It's also possible that multiple notes represent a single bottle (good or bad).  That said, there's enough here for me to mindfully avoid some producers and to consume my White Burgundy bottles mostly by the 5 year mark, and certainly before they reach age 10.

Edit: 

Based on feedback from posting some of this information on WineBerserkers,  I took a look at running/cumulative flaw rates for a vintage.  Essentially, once a vintage starts to get in the orange/red zone of the table, things are getting more risky.  Read this left to right, and see cumulative % of White Burgundy bottles from that vintage that have been flagged as flawed.

And in this line chart I took a cross-section at several points of a white Burg's life., if the lines slope downward, the issue of premox is improving.  Here, while they are sloping down, it is a rather minor slope & seems too early to say that producers have progressed in solving the issue.

Vin Chicago Monthly Tasting: Feb 2014

The monthly "Sneak Preview" tastings that happen on the first Wednesday of each month at Vin Chicago have been a staple on my calendar for years. It's a great shop, with a smart staff skilled at finding quality bottles at price points that are usually easy on the wallet.  The tasting focuses on that month's new arrivals to the shelves (it doesn't cover all of them, but usually about 30 wines)  These were my favorites from this month's tasting.

Best Reds: I can't pick just one.

Felsina "Berardenga" Chianti Classico Riserva 2010 ($26)
If you want to sound like a wine geek (snob? loser?), "2010 was fantastic in Italy", "this drinks like baby Brunello", and "I'd love to try this in 10 years" are some things you could say about this bottle.  Red cherries, dry leaves, and herbs are all over this.  It's mid-weight, drinking pretty well at this point, but the acidic backbone toward the end tells us it can hang out for many years.  Or open the bottle a few hours before eating with any Italian red sauce or roasted beast.

Broc Cellars Central Coast Cabernet Franc 2012 ($19)
The Cab Franc may be the best US Cab Franc I've had.  Smells like pepper cloves, bell pepper, and wet earth with a hint of cherries.  Not at all heavy or sweet, it's easy to drink and delivers all the elements of the nose when tasting.  If Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec make up most of your red wine consumption around this price point, this could be a new experience you end up loving.


Best White: Ghiomo "Inprimis" Langhe Arneis 2013 ($17)
Lot of interesting stuff here.  Many layers of white: fruit, flowers, white nuts (ish.  Hazelnuts/Almonds), white grapes even thanks to the skin contact.  Viscous body that feels weighty but tastes crisp, then shows zesty acid & lots of delicious white fruits at the finish.  Fish, lemony chicken, crabcakes, hummus & hanging out will be great with this.


Low Price Red: Bodegas Casa Castillo Monastrell Jumilla 2013 ($10)
This had enough fruit & body to be an easy party wine, but also enough structure to work with most red meats.  Monastrell ("Mourvedre" anywhere outside of Spain) always shows great dark fruit, and this also had a nice touch of spice & black licorice.


Low Price White: 90+ Cellars "Lot 118" Coteaux du Giennois Sauvignon Blanc 2013 ($11)
There were a few good Sauvignon Blancs this week, but this won me over with the interesting green streak to the finish.  Imagine if someone put celery in a fruit salad full of apples, melons, and grapefruit.  That person was probably just attempting to clean out the fridge, but it works in this wine.  Like the wallet-friendly Monastrell, this is easy enough to drink on its own but could also go well with shrimp, lemony chicken, or--the nerd play--a "grassy, earthy Brie".  Go to Pastoral, they'll help.

Last note: The Paul Cluver Elgin Chardonnay 2013 from South Africa was also an interesting wine.  If you drink a lot of Chardonnay, try it as a change of pace.  Bonus points if you take it to a Korean restaurant & drink it alongside funky (but not too spicy) food.

That does it for February, more to come next month.  Enjoy!

Concert Calendar

Here's what I have on the concert radar for the next couple of months (you may need to click "Show More" to go beyond March).

Here's a playlist on Spotify that has samples from the artists featured here--give it a listen & catch a live show if anything stands out.

Food Cheat Sheet

Here is my view of Chicago's food scene.  I obviously haven't eaten everywhere and clearly frequent some neighborhoods more than others, but for better or worse this list represents places I have visited and often point friends toward when they ask about a certain occasion or neighborhood.  For example, "We're going to a concert at Old Town School of Folk in Lincoln Square, where should we eat beforehand?"  I'd say Browntrout, Fountainhead, or Caro Mio if it's date night; Bad Apple or Fountainhead are options if it's a casual evening.

I've been building this over the past 2 years and will continue to update it, since I'm not going to stop eating anytime soon.  Feel free to leave a comment with any spot you think I missed, or other ways to improve it.