Bad Bottle? A Corked Overview
I stop at my local wine store once a week, and although I have my favorites, I like to experiment with new and different wines. Sometimes as a pairing to a dinner I’m planning. Such was the case a few weeks ago. I went in and picked up a young fruity red for a chicken dinner. As I was prepping dinner, I decided to pour myself a glass to enjoy as I cooked. It tasted bad. Truly awful. It was corked.
The official name is cork taint, which is a sufficiently gross name to match the taste experience. Essentially, it is a fault in the wine that can only be detected after the production and bottling have occurred, so as you go to enjoy your just opened bottle, you get a disappointment in both smell and taste. The cork gets the blame, but there are other factors that can cause this. Basically, a fungus (from a chemical compound, usually TCA) gets transferred to the wine and impacts the smell and taste. This is often from the cork, a 
result of bleaching the cork for sterilization (yes, ironically, bleaching can create the fungus). TCA occurs naturally, so there are multiple potential sources, but typically the cork is to blame.
Wine producers have moved to synthetic corks, twist tops and alternatives to sterilization of cork to combat this problem. Of course, you and I would have no idea what kind of sterilization process was applied to the cork, the only thing we can appreciate is the smell and flavor of the wine.
Another potential problem you can encounter with a fresh bottle of wine is oxidization. Technically, this is different than cork taint, but the term corked is typically used to describe a newly opened bottle of wine that doesn’t taste right, no matter the cause. Oxidization can occur if the bottle of wine didn’t have a tight seal. Again, the cork is typically to blame. As I consider my most recent corked bottle, I believe that was the culprit. I do remember taking off the foil and seeing some irregularities and discoloration with the cork.
To add even more complexity to this issue, there are varying degrees of impact you may experience with a corked bottle of wine. Think of it as a sliding scale from 1 to 10. On the low end, there may be some impact to flavor and aroma, perhaps this bottle is less fruity than the last time you tried. Maybe the taste falls flat at the end instead of finishing with a flourish. On the high end the flavor and aroma will be mutated to unappealing. This wine is described as musky or smells like wet cardboard. My favorite description is the wine tastes like a wet basement smells.
The good news is that drinking a bottle that has been corked is harmless. Unless you consider disappointment harmful. It does suck to get an undrinkable bottle of wine. If you are at home, you just need to choose either to keep drinking (for minor flavor impacts) or open another bottle. If you are in a restaurant, taste the sample the waitress or waiter offers. Your focus here should be on detecting any funk in smell or taste. You are not trying to determine if you like the bottle of wine you just ordered, the intent of the tasting is to determine if the bottle is corked.
Being the official taster of the bottle of wine for your table can be a bit intimidating, at least it used to be for me. What has freed me of feeling intimidated is knowing that the waitress, bartender or sommelier (if you are some place fancy) is there to help. You just need to ask for help if I think something is off about the wine. Sometimes the full flavor of the wine takes time to develop after opening a bottle, and they can help determine if that is the case. Developing a sensitive pallet takes time and experience, and it is perfectly acceptable to have the professionals step in if you have a question or concern.
The final advice from the Boozer Blog on the corked issue: always have a back-up. With my most recent experience, I just had to pour out the bad wine and open another bottle. The more wine the merrier 😊 Cheers to health, happiness and a good drink!
