Abadia Retuerta '96

[Randy Caparoso]

Nancy, Nancy: You had ONE bottle that was corked. The current industry standard is 5% corkiness. So if less than one out of your past twenty bottles has been corked, I'd say that you're leading a charmed life.

No, I absolutely cannot say that I've found Spanish wines to be "corkier" than others. I find these runs of corked bottles in products from all over the world -- Germany, Australia, New Zealand, France, California, Oregon... no wine region, and no wine producer, has been immune to this pesky problem. Very recently a friend of mine opened a rare (and hideously expensive) Batard-Montrachet by Domaine Leflaive that was just brutally corked. If anything, in my own experience, the pricier and more hand crafted the wine, the higher the percentage of corked wine!

The sponginess, of course, has nothing to do with the chances of a wine being corked. I'd be more worried if the corks were dry (which means improper storage causing shrinkage and thus possible oxidation). What one sometimes finds in imported wines, however, is red coloring of corks -- which means at one point the wines were stored in extreme heat causing the wines to leak out. But it's amazing -- sometimes wines turn out just fine after that (other times they've become thin, lifeless, and "burned out"). None of which has anything to do with corkiness, which is a bacterial problem.

One caveat: If a wine has come a long way (particularly from Europe), given a choice between a younger and older vintage, unless you absolutely know the older vintage is better you should take the younger. Why? Because that's one less year during which it could have been mishandled during shipment and storage. I always do this as a matter of habit to increase my chances of getting a fresher product. But again, this is all a matter of freshness, not corkiness.

So don't complain to your friendly neighborhood retailer just yet (although I'm assuming you returned the corked bottle, which is accepted practice even among friends). But in the interest of getting sound product, the next time you place a special order try to specify the vintage. God help you if they happen to send something much older; especially if the wine in question is supposed to be enjoyed when young and alive and kicking!

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 09-13-99).]