Cork and wine breathing

[Tastevin]

I had to put my fourpennyworth (I think you say two cents worth in the U.S.) in here. During 40-odd years spent in the wine trade, including several as a bottling and cellar manager I came across various causes for ullaged bottles - absorption by the cork; short-filling; ill-fitting cork causing leakage during storage where the bottles are binned and lay uncapsuled sometimes for years until dressed for shipment; ill-fitting cork causing leakage through capsule; ditto secondary fermentation. Whilst I believe that a miniscule amount of air finds its way through the cork and into the wine, I fail to see how that could cause a noticeable loss of wine.
None of these events cause wine to be “corked“. TCA contamination comes mainly from corks. If I have remembered correctly, the wine industry estimates that 3% - 7% of all wines have TCA contamination levels that can be detected by consumers. So Ww if I may say, you have been very lucky, or perhaps you do not have a low tolerance but a high one. [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img] I am also intrigued by your statement where you say “.....and all of the other problems associated with corks have to be associated with the quality of storage”. I am interested in knowing what “all the other problems” are.
I believe we are going to be stuck with “corked” wines until the modern screw cap becomes the norm. T