As I was pulling the cork on a '14 Juillot 1er cru Mercurey just now, I could smell the TCA mustiness before the cork was a quarter of the way out…strongly affected cork. I anticipated the worst and poured a small sample into a nearby paper cup instead of the Zalto Bordeaux glass I had out. But the wine was fine - no corkiness, no attenuation on the palate. So how often does that happen? 
First instance of a corked bottle from this producer out of many cases, so no complaints there. But it made me wonder how this turned out like this and how often folks see that.
Sure the TCA could’ve been trapped in the center of the cork and never come in contact with the wine.
I’ve had that happen reasonably often. Just make sure you wipe the rim of the bottle thoroughly just in case, to avoid contaiminating the wine.
I’ve seen this quite a few times, enough to make me realize that smelling the cork is completely pointless.
I’ve had it happen, including once when I was pouring at a winery open house. I set the bottle aside in case there was some minor corkiness in the wine, but nobody could detect anything in the wine (the smell was quite noticeable in the cork).
-Al
It’s pretty funny when you think about it – the waiter presenting you with the cork, which you sniff, leading you to reject a bottle that’s perfectly fine.
If the business end of the cork smells bad, the wine is usually bad. I think it is possible for some other part of the cork to be tainted and for that not to affect the wine. I have gotten into the bad habit of re-sealing bottles by turning the cork over to re-insert it, which in theory could ruin a good bottle.
I think that’s right, Oliver. The TCA portion would have to be well away from the business end of the cork (and it’s always seemed that way with the examples I’ve had). I usually don’t smell the cork when the somm or waiter hands it over, but generally do at home before sticking it back in the bottle (I also tend to turn it over).
-Al
But what if the cork is only ‘lightly’ corked? You may not smell it on the cork but the wine could be more badly affected, correct?
I have not looked into it, but with the new ‘no tca guaranteed corks’, what do you have to do if you suspect a wine is corked? Send the cork back? The bottle? Curious . . .
Cheers
I’ve had this happen several times over the years. Sometimes corked cork and perfectly fine wine. Sometimes corked wine and perfectly fine smelling cork.
I never sniff a cork - it smells like ‘cork’, not ‘corked’/TCA but it doesn’t smell like wine, and that tiny sample on the end of the cork that came in contact with the wine for years might have tartrate crystals, might be moldy, etc, but the wine can be fine. Smelling the cork is silly, IMHO
I totally agree. But waiters still offer the cork and patrons still sniff. I was just chuckling at the idea that a waiter would prompt a good bottle to be rejected.
So here’s a question for Somms for WSET folks - are you still trained to give the cork to patrons?
Cheers.
As a rule, I don’t smell the cork either, but I’ve opened a couple of bottles recently (both from the late 90s) where the cork was so contaminated that my hands reeked of TCA after handling the cork. In both cases, the wine was horribly corked as well.
When they hand the patron the cork, the patron is supposed to look to see if the cork/vintage match that on the bottle, not sniff it, no?
I usually look at the cork as an indicator of seepage or storage conditions. If the cork is tainted all the way through or if it is wet at the top then it provides indicators of potential damage. The main smell that you one does not want in wine is cork, why smell it!
I usually smell both the cork and the wine. First (to me), TCA is more obvious in a cork. It has a much different odor than a clean cork. Second, most wines aren’t corked, so my general assumption is that the bottle is good. If the cork smells like TCA, I am more suspicious about the actual wine and I will give it a more thorough test before it is poured.
I agree that one almost never needs to smell the cork to pick out a tainted wine. Most wines affected with TCA are obvious enough. On the rare occasion, however, that it is slightly, slightly corked, it might be more quickly discovered when its cork is TCA infected. It only takes a couple of seconds after all.
It probably should be noted that I open almost all of my own bottles. At a restaurant, I wouldn’t smell the cork.
You only have to do this once and ruin a good bottle to be cured of the habit. If the cork won’t fit back in the way it came out (which is fairly commonly the case), I trim it a bit with my pocket knife so I can put it back in so I can avoid putting it back in upside down. The top end of the cork commonly has all kind of crap on it.
If i’m opening a lot of bottles, for example at a tasting, I always smell the corks. If one smells off I put the bottle aside to be tasted carefully before pouring. In normal service it’s not as important, it can still be a tip-off.
I only work with Italian wine, and Italians don’t typically keep their unlabelled bottles in the damp conditions that some classic French producers do, so there isn’t the same growth of mold under the capsule. That’s not connected to the TCA question, AFAIK. But back when I used to be out selling I would occasionally note a corked sample becoming apparent half-way through the day, which could well have been due to my bad habit. I should know better by now.