Don’t forget, we “don’t know how these wines would aged under screw cap”…my guess is they would have aged WITHOUT cork taint!
I had a bad bottle from Foley a while back. I e-mailed them and they asked if I had any of the wine remaining. I said I tossed it. They said no problem and sent a replacement bottle(which was fine BTW). That’s the kind of customer service that keeps people coming back.
Kevin, this won’t make you feel any better, but wasn’t it 7 out of 8 bottles?
Did you buy it direct from Foley, at retail, at auction, or otherwise? Just curious.
Thanks for the math correction. And yes, the percentage of corked bottle is now 87.5% vs. 85.7%. Ugh.
One other clarification on the call I had with Forman - Margaret said they were entirely out of the 1992; otherwise, she would have shipped me one.
And here’s the sad thing to me - it’s great that wineries do this, bit it really should be ‘expected’, no? At the end of the day, it’s a faulty product . . .
Cheets.
There are several reasons this could happen:
- Small sample size and bad luck. Improbable, but certainly not impossible.
- Batch of contaminated corks, or contamination in the winery. Personally I’d take Foley at their word on this one.
- Contaminated glasses. I wouldn’t rule this out, glasses stored on cardboard or even a contaminated cabinet can cause the perception of tainted wine. If you didn’t change anything in your glass storage then probably not the culprit, but easy enough to give your glasses a sniff before pouring.
Yep. Looking forward to the day when the “romance” of bad bottles is a quaint, distant memory.
So opened bottle #3 of the 99 Dunn Napa this weekend - and yes, it was corked.
This bottle was opened at another person’s house, so the suggestion about changing glasses unfortunately didn’t help.
I really can’t believe this - I must have really done something that the wine gods disapproved of to bring on this run of bad bottles.
If the next one is corked, I’m going to try the saran wrap trick and see if it helps.
Is there any way that cork taint could get into a bottle AFTER it is corked? Say it was stored in warehouse that was infected, could the TCA get into the bottle via the small amount of air exchange that naturally happens with corks?
It works, and it’s interesting to see from a science perspective. Unfortunately, it won’t salvage your wine experience any. The saran wrap rids you of the TCA, but at the same time, it also rids you of most of the complexity and character of the wine. You end up with a wine that isn’t corked anymore, but also tastes like a $3 wine from Trader Joe’s. You could drink it, but I doubt you’ll want to.
Is there any way that cork taint could get into a bottle AFTER it is corked? Say it was stored in warehouse that was infected, could the TCA get into the bottle via the small amount of air exchange that naturally happens with corks?
I don’t think so, short of someone having injected TCA into the wine through the cork or something.
I once got a magnum from Ampelos as a gift, and the shipping box reeked of TCA like nothing you’ve ever seen before. My hands smelled overwhelmingly of TCA just from touching the box, and the outside of the bottle reeked of it as well. But when I got around to opening it, the wine was fine.
I saw this once, in a winery*. One of the reasons I usually rinse with wine before pouring.
- a glass jug that was being used to pour tank samples had been in a ‘corked’ cupboard. I thought the man’s whole cellar was corked until we figured it out.
Is there any way that cork taint could get into a bottle AFTER it is corked? Say it was stored in warehouse that was infected, could the TCA get into the bottle via the small amount of air exchange that naturally happens with corks?
I don’t think so, short of someone having injected TCA into the wine through the cork or something.
I once got a magnum from Ampelos as a gift, and the shipping box reeked of TCA like nothing you’ve ever seen before. My hands smelled overwhelmingly of TCA just from touching the box, and the outside of the bottle reeked of it as well. But when I got around to opening it, the wine was fine.[/quote]
Amazing Chris. Never had that experience and do not look forward to doing so.
While never quite this extreme, I’ve had this happen numerous times, where the inside of the shipping box smells “corked.” Happened with both styrofoam and cardboard, but never had any impact on the wine.
Chris, Jeff- Now Im starting to wonder how one distinguishes a TCA tainted box from a regular cardboard box? Ive had many a wine glass stored in cardboard that had that smell, but do not suspect they were inundated with TCA.
Blake,
It’s my understanding TCA can attach to a number of substances, not just cork, including cardboard and apparently styrofoam as well. I happen to be very sensitive to TCA so it’s possible that I notice it where others wouldn’t. Also, I don’t want it to sound like this is a common occurrence - of the hundreds of shipments I’ve gotten over the years, I’ve noticed it maybe 10 times.
While people use wet cardboard to describe a corked smell, to me it’s more of a musty or moldy smell. I would think if you are smelling a “normal” cardboard smell, that is something different and not unusual. When that happens, I just give the glass a quick rinse and all is good. Plus, even when I had the “corked” shippers, I have never noticed an impact on the wine.
I hear you Jeff. My wife has olfactory perception way beyond mine and I always yield to her sensorial experience in deference to mine if I`m even a bit suspicious. I learned a long time ago from my friend, Jim Clendenen to take a nose on the stems provided on the table in a restaurant before pouring any wine into them. He once picked up the cardboard storage in all of the stems at our seating for 8 and had them rinsed, wiped dry and returned before pouring any of the fine wines we had brought.
Trust me, you would have identified the TCA on this box from across the room, it was nothing like the small extent to which cardboard normally smells. Plus, it got on your hands in a huge way just from handling the box, which doesn’t normally happen when you handle cardboard boxes.
It was a one time thing, but it was waaaay over the top. I’m curious where along the way that box acquired the contamination, and how anyone packaging that bottle wouldn’t have noticed it (unless it became contaminated somehow after being packaged and before arriving at my house, which would have only been a couple of days).
Chris, I learned a long time ago on this board to trust you. Your experience is quite unique.