Interesting thoughts about lack of corked Carlisle bottles

Flipping through my Carlisle records on CT in response to comments on the impending mailer and I noticed something. I have written 31 formal Carlisle TNs. According to CT, I have drunk 109 bottles. The actual number is a bit less because when I did some cellar cleanup I may have deleted and then reentered some bottles, but not that many. Although I have a few screwcapped Carlisles, I am generally saving them as experiments to see how they hold up. I have had exactly one bottle of Carlisle that was corked. I remember it well because it was a bottle that I brought to a friend’s house for a dinner party. That about a 1% corked rate.

Carlisle is sufficiently flavorful that when the TCA eats up some of the flavor, it’s easy to notice that something is off. I was at the (former) winery a few years ago and it looked perfectly respectable, but not like a hermetically sealed Intensive Care Unit. I wonder why the incidence of corked wines is so low. Is it just that I have been lucky? Does zinfandel kill TCA? If Mike Offier just more careful than other people? Inquiring minds want to know.

I’d say the rate is 2% for me.

I’ve had exactly 3 Carlisle wines in my life. One was corked. 33%! Must be a winery taint problem.

A group of us has been having annual Carlisle dinners with Mike since 2007. We have consumed 168 wines in the eight dinners. I believe the only corked wine was the 2005 Carlisle Vineyard Zinfandel. I have had no corked wines in my personal consumption (or it was light enough that I didn’t notice it) which is probably 30 to 40 bottles a year.

David

I have consumed over 70 bottles since 2006, zero corked.

I have 50 tasting notes on Carlisle wines and not one corked bottle.

Shocking.

I’ve tasted ~36 bottles without issue.

I have consumed 102 bottles and I have not had one corked bottle. I am very sensitive to TCA.

Interesting…never thought about it, but since it was brought up I do not remember ever having a corked Carlisle. I’ve been buying since the '01 vintage and consumed 197 bottles. That is a heck of a track record.

I have never had a Carlisle, but from this thread I deduce that it is a very effective memory blocker!

With all the follow-up posts, we may actually have a meaningful sample size!

Jay, I think it is pretty rare for a winery to be infected with TCA and if it was the taint would appear across all wines not just a few random bottles. The issue is with individual corks for the most part and not the facility itself as your experience shows. FWIW I have not had a single corked Carlisle in 60+ bottles consumed.

Bingo!

I’ve never had a corked Carlisle, maybe 50 bottles in or so.

But I very rarely get corked bottles from the good mailing list type producers we talk about on here. I think I had one corked bottle of Cabot, one of Anthill, and one of Lillian, spanning the last five years or so. I don’t remember ever having one from Rhys, Copain, Dehlinger, Kosta Browne, Sea Smoke, Big Basin, Arcadian, Carlisle, Turley, QC, Tercero (who of course doesn’t use corks), Tribute to Grace, etc.

I get the vast majority of corked bottles from the old world, and especially Italy. Italy is ridiculous in terms of the incidence of corked bottles.

You got me curious. 117 notes since 2008 and only 1 corked bottle - a 2010 Three Birds.

Interesting. I couldn’t find a good way to sort them in CT but it appears from first glance I have had the highest incidence of TCA in Italy, followed by France and then CA. While our tastes are shifting, our consumption history is just the opposite - USA, France and then Italy.

Edited for clarification

I had never thought about it until now but I cannot recall a single corked Carlisle.
I would estimate I have tasted about 50 bottles.

David, Not so. It’s been 4 by my count.

Got to be 3 figures worth by now, thanks Joel! Not super sensitive but had one 2007 PS that didn’t wow us. Was wondering if that bottle was corked.

I am very sensitive to TCA, and out of 170 bottles of Carlisle consumed (over many years), I have had a grand total of ONE corked bottle, which Mike graciously replaced.