Corked Wine: Follow Your Nose
Ah, the tasting ritual: the waiter cradles the bottle, you peep the label, a smidgen is poured. Eye the color, swirl the juice, and nose it. If you’re happy and you know it, nod away.
The tradition is also a security measure: you’re making sure the wine’s not contaminated with cork taint, a natural-cork phenomenon you’ll want to know when you smell.
Cork taint: not that half-drank bottle that turned to vinegar – that’s just oxidization. No, this bad-bottle funk reveals itself upon opening, and not a moment before.
It’s like a ghost story: shivering tales of should-have-been-great bottles, popped to reveal a specific bouquet of…mold. Most will eventually smell the ghost, with anywhere from 4% to 8% of cork-sealed wines being spoiled.
Cork taint is caused by TCA, created when pollutants absorbed by cork trees combine with airborne fungi (that’s right, invisible mushroom bombs). An equal-opportunity party pooper, it can ruin any bottle using cork – but generally only one at a time.
How will you know, Whitney Houston? Well, the wine posse uses some colorful descriptors, but “old, wet newspaper” and “soaking dog” are not smells one should find. A funky cork is not necessarily a sign: only the juice will tell you.
What to do, Mick Jagger? By all means, bring it to the attention of store or server, and it’ll most probably be replaced – they want your biz. As many a kitchen crew know, cork taint is harmless: while the wine is wrecked, the shtank fades, and the alcohol is still in the bottle.