If you have ever opened a treasured bottle of vintage wine, that you’ve lovingly saved in your cellar awaiting that “special occasion”, only to find that the wine smells musty and reminds you of a mildewy basement, then you’ve probably experienced a wine that is “corked.”
Corked wines are not, per se, bad wines. They have simply been subjected to poor quality control, usually at the bottling stage, but occasionally at other stages in the handling and bottling process.
Unlike oxidation or excessive aging, both of which can occur when the wine comes into the consumer’s possession, corkiness is a fault that can only occur at the place of production, and is present in the bottle from the moment the bottle is sealed. Unlike wines that are inherently flawed through poor winemaking techniques, corked wines occur as a result of tainted corks being used at bottling. Even the very finest of wines from the most prestigious estates can be corked, which is partly why this condition is so frustrating to the consumer.
The factors that contribute to cork taint are simple and generally avoidable. Unfortunately, however, this taint still occurs in around 7% of all bottles sealed with a cork. Sometimes the taint is slight and barely discernible. Most of the time, however, it can render a wine completely undrinkable.
What produces cork taint? Simply, it is the compound 2-4-6 Trichloroanisole (TCA), a chemical which forms when chlorine used in the sterilization of corks is improperly rinsed off, and reacts with components in the wine. This chemical is common in many areas of the food industry, and can be readily detected in bags of pre-peeled carrots or sliced apples, for instance.
Because of reluctance on the part of cork producing countries to address this issue, consumers, restaurants and retailers are faced with a frustrating and expensive rate of wastage. In no other industry would such a high percentage of spoilage be tolerated, but in the wine industry, this is considered the norm. Unfortunately, many novice wine consumers, upon tasting a cork-tainted wine will simple blame the quality of the wine itself and never return to that particular brand, in the mistaken belief that it is the wine, and not the bottling process, which is at fault.
Which brings us to screw caps. Back in 2001, when the wine world was busily exploring alternative closures such as synthetic cork and plastic stoppers, a group of New Zealand producers, headed by Kumeu River Winery, established a program known as the Screwcap Initiative. Within a very few years, virtually every single producer in New Zealand and most in Australia had signed on, and was using screw caps to ensure taint-free wines, to preserve freshness and to facilitate quality control. In spite of the obvious and palpable benefits to screw cap closures, ten years on the product still encounters resistance from predictable quarters. Some insist it takes the romance and tradition out of wine. Yes, maybe, but so does a rotten bit of tree bark that makes the wine smell like old socks.
Some insist that wine doesn’t age properly because air can’t pass through the screw cap. Fortunately, it can’t, but air doesn’t pass through cork either, otherwise Champagne would be flat. Wine matures through the reaction of components already in the bottle, not through exposure to the outside atmosphere.
If you’re fortunate enough, as I have been, to taste identical wines bottled with a cork and with a screw cap, you’ll be amazed at the difference there can be in levels of aromatics and freshness. It’s a no-brainer. Now if we can just convince the French and Italians to throw away those musty old corks, the wine world would be a far happier place.
