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Corked Wine

All of us familiar with wine are also, sadly, too familiar with the smell of trichloroanisole, a contaminating compound which imparts, in the worst-case scenario, an offensive, musty, mouldy, damp cardboard and old socks aroma to the wine. Its source is well known; in the vast majority of cases it is felt to be contamination of the cork by mould. Although it is now becoming accepted that other sources of contamination include infected barrels and even mould spores from the bricks and mortar (well, wooden roof beams at any rate) of the winery buildings, the finger of suspicion remains largely pointed at the cork.

Screwcap This is a matter of hot debate for the wine industry, and reducing the incidence of spoiled wines is a major factor behind the increasing prevalence of the screw-cap closure, as well as synthetic closures - those brightly coloured 'plastic corks' which are, from time to time, found beneath the capsule. There is controversy, however, about just how significant the problem is. What is the incidence of wine spoilage due to cork taint? Figures vary. I am amazed by some industry sources which put the figure as high as 10%, which implies that of the bottles I drink at home (not including those encountered at tastings) I should be experiencing cork taint once every three to four weeks, on average. In the past I have had bad runs, once opening five corked bottles in an eight-day stretch, but I doubt it would even out at a figure of 10%. Likewise, I am equally amazed by some individuals - usually to be found in the Decanter letters section - who claim that the problem is hugely exaggerated because in twenty years of drinking they've never encountered a corked bottle, and only two have even been faulty. These imbeciles clearly lack sufficient insight to realise they have a very inadequate palate; the number of heat damaged and corked bottles they have failed to spot probably runs into hundreds.

Cork The sterilisation of cork - which is a biological material - is not a method ever likely to succeed. I am aware that some domaines have good success with cork; Vega Sicilia is one example. But here the success depends upon rigorous testing and selection of corks to ensure high quality; this is not a realistic industry-wide solution. We have to look elsewhere for an answer. I believe that experimentation with alternative methods of closure is vital in order to move forward with solving the cork issue. The sooner the great wine estates - of the Old World as well as the New - begin to bottle small quantities with alternative closures such as screwcaps, the sooner we will know how these affect long-term cellaring. In the meantime, us wine consumers have little else to do but wait on the sidelines, and other than returning the odd bottle of corked wine to the retailer there is nothing we can do to make ourselves heard. And I find that very frustrating.

Which is why I'm starting this feature on corked wine. There will be no dreary reports on the latest comments from the pro- and anti-cork lobbies. Nor will I be droning on about the latest synthetic cork, the philosophical implications of returning corked wine to the retailer, or the molecular structure of trichloroanisole (I can hear it now - it's 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, actually, and that's just one of many compounds that cause cork taint, actually). Rather, I'll be keeping an online record, updated monthly, of the corked wines I experience throughout 2005. This will serve two purposes; firstly, it will facilitate an awareness of how sensitive my palate is to cork taint - I suspect a figure somewhere between 3 and 5%. Secondly, I'll bring together notes for all the corked wines here, and we'll see what responses - if any - we can get from the producers. Hopefully we'll get some intelligent insights into the cork debate from the point of view of the vigneron. Which affluent chateau-owners don't care, and which are doing their utmost to deliver drinkable wine to the consumer? Now that will be interesting. (11/1/05)