Thursday night I opened a 2021 Riesling that I’d bought from Dezza Winery last September.
Before opening it, I had an ominous feeling about the wine, because their 2019 Riesling and the 2022 Riesling traditional method sparkler had both gone off.
Ta-da! This one was no exception. As I sniffed the wine in the glass, Riesling’s typical aromas were completely muffled by a sharp first-aid kit odour.
When a wine’s aromas are off, don’t even bother to taste it because flavours are sensed through olfaction. But I still did. It tasted just as off.
My wine textbook says if you smell band-aid in your wine, it’s contaminated with Brettanomyces (a kind of yeast), as a result of poor hygiene in the winemaking environment. While I can’t prove that was the case, something I saw on my Dezza visit last year did raise a flag.
The Unsaid Unease
Last September, at the invitation of a friend, I visited Dezza winery in Oltrepò Pavese on a Saturday. Great weather, hospitable owner, everything was perfect. But when we visited the winemaking room, the obvious untidiness shook me a little. I quickly glanced over my friends’ faces. They all seemed calm, one or two even smiling, so I didn’t say anything to them.
The wines we tasted later that day were also normal, so I almost forgot about the mess in the winemaking room.
It wasn’t until I opened their 2019 Riesling at the end of 2023 and found the aromas and flavours off, and the 2022 Riesling sparkler I opened earlier this year met the same fate, that the not-too-pleasant image of Dezza’s winemaking room flashed back again.
The Wines You Drink Made Where?
My friend knew about Dezza Winery because the wines sent to him regularly by an online wine club he’d paid to join included those from Dezza. He’d enjoyed their wines so much that he invited me to visit the winery with him.
At the end of the visit, my friend bought several cases of Pinot Noir. Given that he drinks wine with dinner every night, he must’ve finished those cases long ago, and I haven’t heard him mention any problems with those Pinot Noir. So I guess all his Dezza wines were good. But then again, for whose who aren’t trained in wine tasting (as is the case of my friend), unless there are obvious faults in the wine such as already vinegarised, other more subtle changes are usually impossible to detect. One example being when I opened Dezza’s 2019 Riesling last Christmas, a trained wine pal and I both found it too old and off for a 2019, but everybody else at table just couldn’t tell a thing.
I’d always loved visiting wineries but especially after these Dezza experiences, I now think seeing the winery in person to know in what environment the wines you drink are made is a must. Besides, in just one visit, you get to tour the countryside, taste wines and even “audit” your own food safety. Isn’t that a great idea?
Next time when you travel, make sure you book a visit to one of the wineries that make the wines you drink regularly, and find it all out yourself.
