Bottle Variation

It’s the hope of every winemaker that all bottles in a case of the same wine taste equally good. However, this is often not so. Some bottles may be excellent, some good, others not quite up to snuff and the odd one even “off”. This is called “bottle variation” and can result from being bottled at different times, on a different bottling line, from a different batch or maybe stored in a different place at the winery. Any of these extraneous conditions can influence the wine and affect its perfection. As a rule, wines from better producers show less bottle variation. So the next time you order a case of wine and discover that not all bottles in that case taste exactly the same, you’ll have a pretty good idea why. Cheers!