There is a wide variety of baffling nomenclature in the wine world. Newcomers may wonder why flavors described as "tar," "tobacco," or "forest floor" could possibly be construed as good things, and how there can be a difference between aroma (the smell of the grapes in the wine) and bouquet (the smell of the wine).
Perhaps most confusing is the term "corked." This does not mean that the wine is sealed with a cork, nor that the cork has been removed. Rather, it is a shorthand term for cork taint, or wine that has been affected by trichloroanisole (TCA), a byproduct of the processing of tree bark into the familiar cylindrical wine corks. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a study conducted in Australia at the 2004 Macquarie Bank Sydney Royal Wine Show, sampling more than 2000 wines from all over the world, showed that 8.45%, or an average of one bottle of every case, was contaminated with the foul-smelling chemical. Other estimates have ranged from 2% to 12%. Curiously, the Australian study found tainted bottles 2% more often in white wines than red, but offered no explanation as to why this might be.
Detectable at levels as low as 5 parts per trillion, TCA's effect can be as subtle as muting the aroma of the wine, or as overwhelming as a distinct smell and flavor of moldy newspaper. The good news is that most reputable wine sellers will accept returns of corked wines; although it is best to get the wine back to them as quickly as possible after opening, and with very little consumed from the bottle, just to be courteous. But, how can you tell that the wine is corked and not simply a bad wine?
There are four kinds of bad wine. First, there is corked wine and the wet cardboard character we were just discussing. Then there is oxidized wine, which can result from a bad seal or simply having been open too long. This can cause the wine to take on a brownish color and the taste of old apples or worse. There is also a multitude of fairly rare but possible bacterial taints that result from unsanitary conditions in the winery. Lastly, we have the very simple poorly made wine. In it, you'll find aromas, bouquets and flavors such as wet grass, cat's pee, band-aids or asparagus.
Avoiding the poorly made wines is just a matter of personal taste and experience; so too with the bacterial infections. To avoid oxidized wine, inspect the cork upon removal. Make sure that the top is dry while the bottom is uniformly moist, with no sign of the wine having leaked along the edge to the top (this can allow bacteria to multiply its was past the seal).
How to avoid cork taint? Simple: screwcaps. I know, one loses the ritual and romance of the corkscrew, but imagine if we were just today inventing the idea of wine and of putting it in a bottle. Do you think we would stop up the end with chunks of Portuguese tree bark? Not likely. Now there are those who say that the cork adds a certain something to a wine which will lay on its side for 10 or 20 years, though my palate is not sophisticated enough to be able to detect that. Nonetheless, how would you feel if you cared for a valuable wine for 15 years only to open it & discovered it had been tainted since day one?
There are synthetic corks, and by all accounts, these do make a good seal and return the ritual of the corkscrew, but they are expensive compared to screwcaps and in our society, the consumer pays for absolutely everything. The screwcap offers economy, a perfect seal, and the egalitarian idea of making wine more approachable for everyone. Tough to argue with that.
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Adam Morganstern: How To Go To a Wine Store
The wine store is there to impress you, not the other way around. You're not supposed to know all the different wines. They are. Great bottles exist at every price range for all occasions.
a 6 year old study on cork taint from a country that has almost completely committed to screw caps. The most recent studies show TCA taint from cork down to less than 1%, (Christian Butzke, an enology professor at Purdue University, in Vineyard and Winery Management magazine) In the six years since the Australian study, the cork industry has spent millions of dollars on improved forestry practices, increased quality control at production facilities and research into TCS contamination at wineries. All of these measures have increased cork quality, function-ability and reduced TCA taint.
The open pit mining for Bauxite, from which aluminum is made, remains one of the most environmentally hazardous practices. To produce one screw cap, ten times more energy is used and 24 times more green house gasses are emitted. Screw caps are NOT recycled in the US. A 2007 trans -national study found higher than normal levels of endocrine disruptor's in wines closed with screw caps (due to the plastic seal) and none found in wines closed with natural cork. Endocrine disruptor's are suspected as the leading cause of breast and colon cancer in the west. http://www.truewines.co.nz/news.php?nid=206797&nt=2
If we are going to open the discussion about wine closures, lets review all the facts, not just those that report erroneous outdated studies. To learn more about our work, please visit: www.corkreharvest.org
Don't look now but your industry bias is showing.
Before accusing me of industry bias, you should have gone to our website, to see that in fact we are NOT part of the cork industry but an independent, nonprofit environmental organization. At this point in time, we have received $0 in funding or donations from the cork industry. We represent all 6.6 million acres of the Mediterranean cork forests, which include millions of acres in Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, France, Algeria, Sardinia and Corsica, that do not produce any cork for wine.
As is often the case, when presented with the environmental issues concerning screw caps and plastic closures, your focus stayed on TCA and the fact that those alternative closures are harmful to our planet, are not sustainably sourced or biodegradable you ignored.
I too have been in the food and beverage industry for over 30 years and have opened thousands of bottles of wine.
The difference between you and I is that I understand that if we continue to poison our planet, there won't be any wines to open, tainted or not.
and they age better than wines sealed with a plastic cork-----------
This method will spare your wrists, effortlessly snap the cap free from the metal sheath, and impress your friends (possibly, depending on your group of friends...)
It has all of the advantages and none of the problems.
http://www.zork.com.au/USA/products-still-wine.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_2_86/ai_n12413998/
Other than that however, it's either gonna be natural cork, synthetic (plastic) cork, or screwtops. Choose your poison.
One thing to remember: most wines aren't made to be stored for a long time. They're intended for immediate consumption or storage for somewhere in the 2 - 5 year range.
Corks have always had this problem and always will (although it is much better than it was even say, 10 years ago). Here are your choices: 1. natural cork, 2. synthetic (ie, plastic) "corks", or 3. screwcaps. Choose your poison, but bear this in mind: No matter what enclosure you choose you are bound to piss off at least a quarter of the end consumers. What fun!
To say that cork taint is simply the fault of the winery is ridiculous. Think next time before tossing out grossly derogatory remarks.
How do you know? Have you ever tasted a quality wine -- or any wine, for that matter -- that was 10 or more years old and that was not sealed with a cork? If you haven't made the comparison, then you can't make the statement.
I know people who think they can't tell when a wine is corked, until you give them some corked wine.
I would think that screwcaps seal better than corks, which are porous, and it is reasonable to think that the difference might have an impact on how wines age. We won't know until we try.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:bdHu8JZ4z0AJ:www.oldbridgecellars.com/data/AWRI_10YrScrewcapTrial.pdf+site:oldbridgecellars.com+screwcap&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiDrDHnBTMqSLRww7VLSatT0x7rmMPNHCY0nlmpbDqbV4-mUoO2fsDRqWou9il2dIp1Zdvjcp7vNUNjOl4e3onnLrMkRSX1sYVOYsbZB2oMIon68pnScIjEgqUrVJ_IzjMPPJ9p&sig=AHIEtbS3Luy5cu5Fja08v938PZkBqeksRQ
It seems that in the test, people could tell the difference. Are you saying that you personally have compared ten-year-old screw cap and cork sealed wine and could not tell the difference?
Kidding. I've had astoundingly good screw cap wines (Oz and Chile mostly) and have finally abandoned the hash pipe/stash box doper's substitute ritual of the corkscrew.
Can you eat mushrooms?
a friend of mine (dietician) says i am a "super taster" -- its basically like a hyper-sensitive thing to some tastes -- like bitter -- i can't even think about eating a lot of things people eat all the time -- grapefruit, shard, turnip.
love me some mushrooms -- cooking up some for a veggie ragout with fennel and sweet onions now!