Ever heard one of your wine geek friends or a server at a restaurant refer to a wine as “corked”? Did you wonder what they meant, or did you maybe assume they were simply referring to the fact that the bottle was closed with a cork? Don’t worry if you thought that last one – you are definitely not alone.
I recently came across a “corked” bottle of wine and when I called the retailer I purchased the bottle from to see if I could return it (you know since we’re in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic) the person I initially talked to thought that I was trying to tell them that I wanted to return the bottle because it had a cork in it and I was looking for say a screw cap closure or something that didn’t require “special” equipment to open. She was mistaken. What I was referring to was a fault in the wine which is commonly referred to as “cork taint”. The manager knew what I meant, but that simply let me know that he was more familiar with the term either through his own experience with it or because of his role in the store and his need to be familiar with various wine faults and reasons why customers may bring back a wine for refund or exchange.
Cork taint is the most common wine fault, and it actually refers to the presence of a chemical compound known as TCA or scientifically speaking 2, 4, 6, Trichloroanisole. TCA effects about 2-3% of bottled wines (or about 1 bottle in every 2 cases). And while 2,4,6, TCA we might not appreciate, (ha, I totally bet you just sang that!) it isn’t actually harmful. You can absolutely drink a wine that has cork taint, you just won’t enjoy it.
So, how do I tell if a wine is “corked”?
If you smell your wine before you drink it, to see if you can pick up on all those lovely and perhaps crazy sounding flavor notes that are listed on the label and instead of strawberries, leather, cherry, spices, and grass notes, you smell wet cardboard, your grandmother’s basement, wet dog, wet newspaper, or mold — you most likely have a “corked” bottle. Another way to tell is if you know that your wine is supposed to be very fruit forward and has won a bunch of awards or accolades and all your getting is a big old swig of flat nothingness with little to no fruit or floral notes and a very muted flavor – it’s probably “corked”. The smells of mold, wet newspaper, and grandma’s basement tend to be stronger in bottles that have higher concentration of TCA present. Again, it’s not harmful, but as you may have noticed from the above description it definitely puts a damper on the flavor party that’s supposed to be happening in your glass.
Am I stuck with this subpar bottle? Am I stuck pouring this $$ down the drain?
The answer is NO. Don’t throw it out!! In many instances you should be able to return the TCA tainted bottle. This is easiest in restaurant settings where the staff can simply take it to the back and grab you another bottle while being readily able to verify for themselves that the bottle is tainted (and hopefully help teach their staff about wine faults). It may be a bit more challenging when you have purchased the wine from a retailer and may no longer have the receipt on hand. Most specialty wine shops and any store with a respectable wine/liquor department aren’t going to want their customers to feel stuck drinking faulty wine, so they will accept the return as long as you bring the bottle back to them, and it helps if it’s as full as possible. Keep in mind this is not always the case, and you should check with your wine retailer first regarding their return policy before you go all HULK on them for not wanting to take back your faulty bottle.
One of my personal best practices is to pour a small sample portion (roughly 1oz) and smell and slurp my wine to check it for faults before I go ahead and pour myself a full glass. This makes it even easier for me to return faulty bottles to my trusted retailers as I am able to return what is basically a full bottle. I do this for my personal drinking and I absolutely do this before I serve wine to my friends and family, because how bad would that be if I’ve been going on and on about a wine and then lo and behold the bottle is “corked” and tastes of nothingness or worse yet, wet labradoodle?! Massive face palm!
Can my screw cap bottle of wine be “corked”?
The answer is technically YES. Cork taint doesn’t only come from the corks themselves, though it is the most common offender. TCA can also be found in other types of woods such as those used for the barrels and can even linger in equipment like hoses and filters. There are also other compounds aside from TCA that can cause those musty aromas in your bottle of wine. It could be tainted with TBA (tribromoanisole), or possibly even with MDMP, or 2-methoxy-3,5-dimethylpyrazine, both of which are compounds that produce those musty notes and can cause wine to become tainted through various other contact points along the wine-making process. Tribromoanisole (TBA), usually comes from wood preservatives and flame-retardant paints used in cellar construction, and there is concern that it can be airborne. TBA can also attach to polyethylene-based wine making equipment (like silicon bungs that seal barrels). MDMP is a compound that can be produced by a bacteria found in soils, plant roots and bark and has been found in oak barrels, staves and chips that are used to make wine.
All of that to say that cork taint isn’t easily identified which can make it hard to differentiate bad wine from wine that’s gone bad for other reasons. Even us professionals can have a hard time sensing cork taint, especially if we’ve never been exposed to it knowingly.
So if you are new to wine and unfortunately come across a boring bottle, don’t swear off wine completely! Yes, maybe that bottle was boring and you learn a few lessons about what you don’t like, but hopefully you’ll try another producer whose wine will have you feeling like Remy from Ratatouille, with a symphony of flavor explosions dancing across your palate. If you did come across a faulty bottle of wine — you don’t have to drink it just because you spent the money! It never hurts to attempt to return it. Life is too short to drink bad wine! 😉
*Additional reading regarding TCA and our Senses: https://www.winespectator.com/articles/cork-tainted-wine-impedes-sense-of-smell-48944
**Sources: https://www.winespectator.com/articles/wine-flaws-cork-taint-and-tca-3346
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/why-hasnt-cork-taint-in-wine-been-eliminated-57615
Be First to Comment