6 out of 7 Corked bottles?

I am hoping to gain some perspective and possible explanations for a recent run of corked bottles that runs well outside the bounds of any statistical norm.

First, please note that I am a new poster, but have been lurking for a few years on the board. I have been drinking wine for a quite a while (I’m 56), and have a modest collection, mostly Bordeaux and Cali Pinot Noir. I have been recently trying to backfill my collection with older (mid-late 90’s) Calif Cabs, via online auction acquisition. Based on my two most recent experiences, I’m starting to question this strategy.

Two months ago I purchased a lot of 6 bottles of 1992 Forman Cabernet. I read the CellarTracker reviews prior to purchase, and they all seemed fairly positive, with no mention of corked bottles. Out of the 6 bottles, 5 were corked. The condition of the corked wine was verified by others that I opened the bottles with, and was not just my own conclusion. I am familiar with barnyardy flavors in wine, and these types of flavors are not off-putting to me, and in fact, make a wine more interesting to me. I also prefer old-style cabs that are leaner and have a vegetal (green pepper) profile, however, these bottles were not that, and were all definitely corked.

I contacted the auction house and let them know what happened - not to look for any compensation but just to let them know about the condition of the bottles and how out of the ordinary it was to have that high a proportion of bottles be corked. Their response was that the bottles were from a collector that they sell to consistently, and that all auction purchases are as-is, buyer-beware.

Last month I purchased a 7 bottle lot of 1999 Dunn Napa Cabernet. This past weekend I opened the first one, and unbelievably, it was corked. I have had a number of Dunn Cabernets in the past and have never had one be corked. I promptly went down to the cellar and pulled a second bottle, only to find that one was corked as well. The flavors were just off, with the classic wet cardboard aromas and flavor. At this point, I just opened a Pinot so we would have something to drink. I have not contacted the auction house (same one as prior purchase) as of yet to tell them about these bottles.

After getting over my initial disbelief (and anger) at this continuing run of corked bottles, I started to wonder if this could be due to something more than bad luck. The labels on the wines are not water stained, so I don’t think these could be flood damaged bottles. (I live in NY and read a number of reports about Hurricane Sandy flooded cellars).

Is there any other possible reason that a run like this of bad bottles could be happening? Heat damaged wines, poor storage?

I am going to try more bottles this weekend to see what happens with the rest of the 99 Dunns and will report back on the results.

Who’s the auction house?

Heat damage and/or storage problems wouldn’t cause cork taint. Either a) your palate is off (although it sounds unlikely given you had other tasters confirm) or b) statistics!

Welcome to the board, Kevin; you’ll probably find plenty of sympathy for your run of very bad luck – most of us have had our share of corked bottles but 6 out of 7 is just too awful to contemplate (my record is 4 out of 6 one evening.)

Another possibility is that Forman had a bad batch of corks or had a TCA infection in their barrels or winery that year. If so, you might expect to see others having that experience on CT; on the other hand, I do t know what percentage of people identify TCA and then post about it on CT.

Small sample size and bad luck.

Zacky’s online (I live in Scarsdale so pickup is local).

The only aged Forman I have ever purchased was a '94. It was corked.

If a winery gets a bad batch of corks, you may well go 12 for 12 and that happened more frequently 20 years ago.

Welcome to the dark side of wine auctions. Guess we know why they were put in auction, huh! Caveat Emptor!

It’s very unlikely, but could it be your stems? Maybe try charging them with a cheap screwcap red before pouring your next older auction purchase?

Hope you have better luck with the 99 Dunn than I had. I had a 3 pack and a mag…all were corked. Only wine I have ever experienced that with…

Sorry for the bad luck on the Forman as well.

Out of curiosity, did zachy’s disclose whether both the Forman and the Dunn were from same consignor?

It sounds like the winery bought a bad batch of corks (bad luck) and maybe all the wines you bought were from the same bottling-line (more bad luck)? It sucks when it happens…I had a thing of corked wines a few years ago…It was ridiculous. Something like 7 corked wines out of 9 opened all from different producers and multiple regions/vintages. My empathy for your loss…

Have you contacted the winery directly? If the winery had that high a level of bad corks, one would assume it would be mentioned somewhere.

If it was my winery, I’d want to know.

That truly sucks - makes me dislike the 'Russian Roulette ’ of corks even more.

Cheers.

About eight years ago we opened 5 out of 6 with varying degrees of TCA. Some horribly and some barely perceptible - from different producers and vintages. Ann and I are very sensitive to it. Fortunately, none of the bottles were terribly expensive or sentimental to us and we have had not experienced anything even close to that since then. Sorry for your bad luck.

Oh my, this is crazy. That’ a bad run, sorry about your luck Kevin. I’d be pissed off.

I agree with some of the others, the winery or the corks were tainted and I would contact them to verify such. Should you do that, please report back as to what you discovered.

Yes, but they’re still totally worth it because of the romance and tradition.

I have emailed both wineries about this experience and will let you know what I hear back.

I feel a bit better hearing that my experience is not (unfortunately) unique.

Hopefully the next bottle will break the streak.

EDIT: OK, as soon as I posted this response, I received an email back from Margaret at Forman Vineyards (this was no more than 10 minutes after I sent the email).

She indicated that base on her history with that particular vintage, and her history over 16 years at the winery, that the 1992 did not have a track record of corked wines.

She apologized for the experience and said I should come by the winery next time I’m in Napa and they would open a few bottle for me.

Have to say, unbelievable customer service.

Love it! A much better response than the one from Zachy`s. Class vs. all business and no heart.