When Is a Wine Flaw No Longer a Flaw?

In wine culture, wine faults create fierce disagreements. Some people find volatile acidity thrilling. For others, a hint of it will cause them to pour the wine down the drain. A trace of Brettanomyces smells earthy and complex to one person, while someone else thinks the wine resembles a horse blanket left in a damp shed. Reduction causes those flinty notes we love in Chablis but can also smell like rotten eggs. So who is right? The usual debate tends to divide into two camps. Some winemakers, and tasters as well, treat any departure from technical cleanliness as damage. If they taste any level of volatile acidity, Brett, oxidation, or reduction the wine is judged to be inferior. But “fault romance” makes the opposite mistake. It treats flaws as signs of authenticity, proof that the wine has escaped the dead hand of industrial winemaking. Funk is a virtue. Volatility signals the wine has vitality. A murky bottle smells like a barnyard because, apparently, barns have terroir. For me,…