Tastevin's cork question

[Tastevin]

Hello Foodie.
Sorry, but I don't grasp what you're getting at when you say '.... the mustiness of cork after it's .........'. If you're saying that it could be faulty wine that's responsible, then why is that more often than not it is only an odd bottle in a case and not the whole bottling?
I agree that a wine will be oxidized if the cork has disintegrated, but I didn't say 'disintegrated', I said 'disintegrating'. What happens in this instance is that the faulty cork is gradually breaking down inside the bottle (due to action of the wine upon the fault/s), but not yet enough to allow sufficient oxygen through to oxidize the wine. However, what it does allow is the cork’s now bad (as in rotten) parts to begin somehow to gradually spoil the wine, including imparting what is now an aroma of bad cork (but still an aroma of cork). This gradual spoilage explains why some bottles are very corked and others are only slightly corked, and, if the cork has broken down sufficiently, why others are oxidized.
So, that is a ‘corked’ wine.
Your wet rag/cardboard smell is due probably to TCA and is quite different, perhaps that is why sometimes there is no cork aroma. Perhaps we should call yours ‘ragboard’. [img]http://wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
Hopefully Foodie, you will find yourself here in the not too distant future. If so, and you have the time, it would be nice to continue this discussion in person over a glass or two of Meursault or whatever.
T.