corked wines

[john cahill]

yes i have had a few bottles of bad corked wine. however since i don`t buy real expensive wine it`s not that big a deal, yet. and i must say that one of my favorite wines a scilian comes with a screw cap,not being an expert i don`t know if it makes a difference or not

[Thomas]

With a screwcap you certainly won't get a corky wine, and you likely won't get a wine any more or less as good had it been sealed with a cork.

[Jerry D Mead]

FOodie...Hate to tell stories on myself, but I actually rejected a wine at the Indiana State Fair one year as "corky," that turned out to be screw-capped (it may have been a barrel-sample, I don't remember now)...every one had a good laugh at my expense.

But the fact is the wine definitely smelled of 2-4-6 Trichlorianisole. I think it can come from cooperage as well, although certainly much more rarely.

JDM

[Thomas]

JDM, happens to the best of us. You know, I always wondered about a possible oak connection to the process of corkiness!!! Who knows? Perhaps use of the screwcap can put that question to rest too.

[tomstevenson]

There's nothing wrong with Jerry's nose, wood is a very common source of TCA and not just oak. At the 1998 London Wine Trade Fair the smell of TCA around the Amorim cork stand was so intense that visitors could smell it as they climbed the stairs. However, there was not a corked cork to be found. It was the wood in the stairs that was found to be contaminated with TCA! Unprecedented high temperatures exacerbated the problem. Although cooperage is a prime source of TCA, there are many other potential wooden sources in a winery and TCA is highly volatile when subjected to high temperature. Bottled water has even been found to contain TCA, so a corky smell not only does not have to come from a cork, it need not even come from a barrel (although the probability is that did), so I hope that Jerry's fellow judges are suitably contrite!

[Bucko]

Obviously you have not seen Jerry's nose, Tom........

Bucko