Sniffing the cork

Many moons ago a friend with (what I presumed to be) more knowledge about these things taught me that one needn’t smell the cork when presented it in a restaurant (or at home, etc., etc.), but that squeezing it to ensure appropriate “sponginess” was a good idea. But last night, after determining that a wine I had opened was definitely tainted with TCA, I went back to the cork and could definitely determine the taint was present there, too.

What do you gals and guys do with the cork right after opening? Any inspection procedure at all?

Cheers, and happy Friday!

I sniff the cork upon pulling it. No other inspection. It can many times give you a heads up as to what will be found in the bottle.

Well…I just give it a casual glance but don’t bother to sniff it. Sometimes we’ll have a TCA tainted wine, but you don’t get it when you smell the cork.

Sometimes, if I have a particularly pretentious twit for a wine server in a restaurant, when he (invariably a male) presents me with the cork,
I’ll pretend to take a bite out of it, chew a bit, and then pronounce it as very tasty and would he ask the chef to saute it in butter for
me. Not that I would ever .!
Tom

I check the cork for seepage. That’s it.

I look at it, usually with disdain for all the troubles its brethren have given me, and toss it away with casual aplomb.

I place it at the base between my index finger and middle finger, stand my fingers on the table like they are the legs of a person, then stiffly walk my fingers on the table and say, “Hey! Pull my cork!”

If I am alone…same thing.

I can’t help but think back to the original Muppet Movie, where Kermit orders a bottle of wine, and Steve Martin, as the waiter, looks at Kermit and says… Excellent choice. Would you like to sniff the cap?

Awesome!

I only smell it if there was a whiff of TCA when opening. Not that it’s necessary since you’re going to smell the wine in any case, but it’s easy to give it a quick sniff.

-Al

It’s a good question and unsurprisingly, has already received opposing views. Years ago I remember reading many places that you weren’t supposed to sniff the cork because it didn’t tell you anything. I suppose that’s true if you’re looking for heat damage or maybe brett or other issues.

Then a few of us were talking about it and one guy, who was a well-regarded somm in NYC, since moved back to Spain, suggested that it wasn’t really useless and that you could detect TCA. So we decided that for a year, we’d all check and would note whether it that was the case.

The results were inconclusive. Sometimes you could detect TCA on the cork, other times not. I’ve kept TCA-infected corks around to see if they changed when they dried out, or what happened when I put them in the microwave.

Anyway, I no longer dismiss the idea of examining or sniffing the cork, but I don’t think there’s a lot of useful information gained thereby. Even if it’s crumbling or spongy or clearly flawed, the wine can still be perfect. There are those people who insist that they get all their information by smell, so I suppose that like dogs, they can sniff the cork and tell you everything you want to know, including what forest it came from! I can’t do that.

Still, sniff away I say!

I agree TCA is not always noticeable in the cork, but it often is. There have also been a couple of times when it was noticeable in the cork, but the wine was fine. Presumably, it was on a portion not in contact with the wine. As noted, I don’t do it as a general rule because I’m going to smell and taste the wine in any case, unless it really reeks.

-Al

I’ve also seen both. So I’m in the “why waste time with the cork” camp.

At a restaurant when presented with the cork I check for seepage and seal and take a quick sniff. It isn’t a 100% reliable, but can be an indicator and yes also a false positive. At home I just smell the neck.

Yes, smelling the cork for TCA can give you false positives, but it’s more likely (at least in my experience) to give you false negatives. I’ve had plenty of TCA-positive wines where the cork didn’t have any trace of TCA. I do sniff the cork when presented to me, but I have to take the results with a grain of salt.

Bruce

Waste of time. Given how easily one can be influenced by mere suggestion, looking for faults from a cork is only setting oneself up for failure.

I don’t sniff it, but I will examine the cork to see if the markings are appropriate, or (now) if there are any birds.

Sometimes the condition is of interest, but as others have noted not necessarily because it portends the wine.

Uhmmm, I am going to be using this in the future.

I have never once smelled tca upon opening the bottle, then smelled the cork and smelled tca too and then been surprised to find no tca in the wine.

I used to pour that into my wine glass and found the tca in the wine. Dump bottle and get another. Then realized two things. One, my palate is usually shot for the evening and two, new untainted wine poured into a rinsed out wine glass will then have a small lingering tca taste.

So, after a few of those events I smartened up and if I smell tca in the cork I would pour the wine into a normal kitchen glass, swirl and smell. If I can detect any tca, I don’t even taste it, I dump it because I know if I take one mouthful of it, my palate is shot for the evening.

+1

I see no reason not to inspect and smell the cork - and I don’t find it’s a waste of time. May it be perceived as a ‘bit pompous’ by others? Of course - but then it’s just a matter of explaining why you are doing it.

And here’s the thing - most consumers don’t know what TCA is anyway - and probably wouldn’t know to check for seepage, etc. So aren’t we ‘doing a service’ by continuing to do so, perhaps educating a server not used to this so that he or she can pass this along to others?

I also agree about the ‘false positives’ of TCA - but it’s not always the case. I have a bottle in my tasting room that was opened a few months back but that is a perfect ‘standard’ for TCA that I let others smell - and yes, the cork definitely smells like wet cardboard/damp basement.

Cheers.

Smell the cork. It’s part of the whole wine experience. Sensing flaws in the wine by smelling the cork is certainly possible, but that’s not the only reason to do so. Just the other day I presented my wife with a freshly pulled cork because it emulated that familiar smell we love of so many wine cellars we have toured through the years. To me the cork is a tiny part of the personality of each bottle we meet.