Corkiness and soft corks

[Thomas]

Ok Randy, I misunderstood your reference to dirty. It seemed like you were placing some of the blame for the tainted cork on bad winemaking practices, which may or may not be the case -- no evidence of such.

As far as I know, the only way producers can identify tainted corks is after they are in the bottle and the taint has done its work. Tainted corks give no visible clue at bottling. That is part of the insidious nature of the problem.