Wine Glass Taint: The Hidden Killer

Image by Ken Wilcox

Pizza and Zinfandel are truly a match made in heaven. Each can be indulgent and simply delicious, but together, hedonistic. Friday's are pizza night at my sister's place and good old Papa Murphy's gets a good share of her business. Indulgent describes nicely the family sized Cowboy Pizza we ordered recently: sausage and pepperoni, a thick crust and plenty of veggies.  A perfect match for Zinfandel. I opened up a 2006 Castoro Cellars Primitivo Oakenshield to go with this beast of a pizza.

The Primitivo was straightforward enough, jammy black cherry, chocolate and lots of vanilla oak; very delicious indeed. With dinner the wine stood up blow to blow against the pizza assault. A flavor explosion and I come out the winner on this Friday night.

After dinner I step outside to finish up the wine and evaluate it once more. Outside among the aspens, free from the rising crust aromas of a pizzeria, free from the toddlers' post dinner carbo-load, the wine was different. The jammy fruit was now flat – cocoa was nowhere to be found. Instead, left in the glass were aromas of charred red pepper, Italian spices and roasted meats. In the mouth, the wine was muted all around like it was left on the counter for one day too many.

The wine was dead.

Perplexed and looking into the glass for answers, the cause to my wine's death was staring back at me. Glass taint.

Every bite of pizza, every forkful of vinaigrette laced salad had left its mark (literally) on my glass. Fingerprints and lip marks covered the glass and covered whatever story the wine inside had to tell. With a new glass my wine was reborn. I've since been switching or washing my glasses during extended tastings and meals. It's made a world of difference.

Beware of the glass taint.