Corked Brie ?

WINE TALK
#1

So I opened a nice bottle of 01 Pommard Petits Epenots from Joillot.
This wine is just becoming approachable but not quite open yet. A bit burly some fruit peeking out and firm tannins still in force.
I had some one night and then left the rest for the next day.

I opened some President brie and took a bite and started drinking the wine the next day. I was a little surprised since I got a distinct corked note with the wine. What happened overnight? I took another sip and although more angular than before it seemed ok. I took some more brie and had the wine and I got the same sensation. I sniffed the brie - it seemed ok but then I noticed when I took a bite with the rind I got that typical corked note. Not sure if it is the paper they put on top of brie for marketing but there was that distinct corked note.

Anyone else had this experience of some food being corked? First for me.

#2

I had a corked bottle of Chimay Grande Réserve once…

#3

The Brie, was it in a wooden box, or just paper-wrapped?

I couldn’t determine if President is domestic or not (so I am assuming that it is).

When I worked at a wine and gourmet foods shop, the cheese wholesaler who delivered to the shop via cooled-18-wheeler trucks often sent cheeses that had to be returned immediately, rejected out of hand as spoiled.

Perhaps your cheese was stored in a cooled warehouse by a wholesaler who was not as quality-conscious as it should have been? If the brie cheese was individually wrapped, then I don’t know how it would have been contaminated. :neutral_face:
President-Brie-coupon.png

#4

Paper wrapped. I am thinking the paper was the issue. Wierd,
Chimay - that sucks. I worked in Belgium for a short time and that beer was nice.

#5

Washed rind cheeses like Brie can produce an ammonia smell if they’re sealed too tightly. That’s quite different from TCA, but pretty common. I don’t know if that might have been part of what you perceived.

#6

Nah - TCa for sure. Smelled like damp cardboard/ newspaper.

#7

I had a corked Cantaloupe once. It happens.

#8

Too many foods/drinks to count. Craziest was for a couple years, 56th st and lexington, north west corner, near some construction, was corked.

#9

Isn’t that a normal Brie flavor?

#10

That was my first thought, but I think the packaging materials could actually have tca instead, though it is probably rare.

#11

I try to avoid eating the rind of Brie, because to my palate it often has a TCA-like taste.

#12

I have this experience all the time with brie cheeses…whether you can see them or not, there are “molds” (remember, TCA is a mold) all over that cheese and what I think happens is the mold is volatized by the wine…anyhow, that’s my theory and I would also add that I think the delicate structure/higher acidity of Pinot has something to do with it…I don’t think I get it as much with heavier reds.

#13

Jon Bonne wrote about a corked apple and did some research.
I bought a rotisserie chicken and I swear one part of the chicken was corked.

#14

Solution: screw-top cheese.

#15

I just walked through a whole foods wine section and the majority of the section was corked!

#16

But presumably fine and not TCA-tainted. [wow.gif]

#17

I had a corked apple (from a fruit and cheese box on the plane) a few days ago.

#18

That’s why the cork manufacturers hate us - we have “corked” apples! I guess they’d prefer that we use some word like “contaminated” but I hate them back for all the corked wines I’ve had so corked apples it is.

TCA comes from the interaction of some mold or fungus with something like bleach, and I wonder if we don’t encounter it a lot more with cheese than we think we do except that the aroma and flavor blends in better or is masked by the other moldy aromas and flavors we get with cheese?