Wednesday Wine 101

Corked adj. |kôrk|

A common question of wine drinkers is, “how can I tell if my wine is corked?”

The good news is once you know what you’re looking for it can be strikingly obvious, but the news is, sometimes cork taint is very subtle and tough to pick out.

Wines become corked when they come into contact with a cork that’s been infected with 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA, for short. Basically, corks are a living product and certain compounds (most notably TCA), get in there and grow, lacing the wine with an undesirable smell of mouldy basement, wet card board, or halitosis.

If a wine is served very cold, or the taint is just starting, it can be tough to pick up. The fruit and nuances of the wine will be slightly blunted in both aromas and palate. However, if it’s really advanced, cork taint can be smelt a mile away and is stomach turning.

Once a wine is affected by cork taint, it’s pretty much impossible to correct it and it’s said up to 10% of the bottles under cork closures are corked.