Another bad bottle? Woo, this smells FUNKYYYYYY! Troubling WTN

Tiny hobby producer on Silverado Trail "Rancho de las Flores." Mid 50s, gray beard, stained teeth, sleepy aura. Tastings in a converted garage. Hippy wine! Very dry Cab, and only $20.00, so I picked up a bottle.

Opened it tonight-plastic cork, so we're not talking standard "corked" wine. And, here's where my lack of experienced tasting note descriptive language failed me. This wine smelled funky. Rotten? I'm not sure about that. Maybe this is the "Brett" I'm experiencing for the first time.

Very odd, animally, funky on the nose. I wouldn't call it "barnyardy, but I'm a city boy (suburban, actually) so what would I know. On the palette (Yes, I even finished a glass), still very funky, but at least it's not sweet at all and for some reason I finished a glass. I noted a very slight effervescence, perhaps, but I'm not thinking this is anything out of the ordinary???

So, guys, what do you think? Spoiled bottle? Now, I did pour it directly from the bottle, so is this maybe just a weird wine that needed to be decanted to allow the odor to blow off? Help!

LOL. Google is your friend. http://carolyntillie_ultimate_californi ... las_f.html

...Opened it tonight-plastic cork, so we're not talking standard "corked" wine. And, here's where my lack of experienced tasting note descriptive language failed me. This wine smelled funky. Rotten? I'm not sure about that. Maybe this is the "Brett" I'm experiencing for the first time. ... Help!

While I am not all that familiar with brett, I've made a few mistakes in my 30+ years of making wine at home. What you're describing is spoiled wine, perhaps by mold. Mold comes from over exposure to air and is not the same as oxidation. A film can form over the wine robbing it of all its fruit characteristics. It's interesting to note that mold (think pennicillin) will actually kill vinegar bacteria. However, even if it's not moldy, the wine could simply have been too low in acid, causing spoilage. Wines with a pH approaching 4.0 can deteriorate rather quickly and even go through malo-lactic or some other process in the bottle, causing CO2 effervesence. In any case, poor wine making.

Sounds reduced to me.

LOL. Google is your friend. http://carolyntillie_ultimate_californi ... las_f.html

Wow. I always wonder where guys like him get the money to do what they do. Did he inherit it? Steal it? Marry it? Was he a bond trader who retired early and discovered LSD?

Well-he didn't appear to be living in any luxury, per se (although living in Napa in itself is pretty nice, imo).

Looking up "reduction," I'm thinking this might it. The
"mercaption" might be a good description.