Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Dang! Two Corked Wines In One Night!

An unusual thing happened this Saturday at The Wine Market. Of the 30 or so bottles we opened that day, two of them were "corked". I've talked about corked wines before, but, as a refresher, "corked wine" refers to cork taint. This is a wine flaw characterized by aromas of wet cardboard, wet dog, moldy newspaper and wet basement. This condition sucks the fruit out of the wine, making it not only stinky, but unpalatable too.
The chief cause of cork taint is the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TSA) and/or 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (TBA). These are natural, albeit undesirable, compounds that are typically transferred to wine from the wine's cork. There is no health hazard from drinking corked wine - just general unpleasantness.
Several customers that day asked me what percentage of wines are corked. So, I pulled a few answers out of my ... uh ... memory that I wasn't really sure about. And there's a good reason for that.
The estimates are all over the place.
Of course all of the studies are unscientific, but the estimates range from less than 1% to over 8% of all bottles of wine being corked.
Any wine sealed with a cork has the potential for cork taint. Price does not matter in the least. The corked wines from Saturday were both reputable Napa Cabernets priced at $75 and $56 per bottle.
Probably the saddest cork taint I ever experienced was in a 1986 Chateau Margaux. This 98 point First Growth Bordeaux currently sells on line for $500 - $800, but this bottle was undrinkable. Very sad, indeed.
Watch for this wine flaw when you order wine in a restaurant, and be sure to refuse the wine if you think it's corked.
Unfortunately, the Margaux mentioned above was from a friend's personal collection.

Tom


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