Can a cork be bad (corked) and the wine still be good? For NYE we had some friends bring a great Aussie shiraz and after pulling the cork and taking a sniff there was no doubt that it was corked. Not horribly but definitely. But the wine did not have any corkiness whatsoever and it was delicious. Were we just deceiving ourselves?
Are you saying the cork itself smelled of TCA but the wine didn’t? That happens a lot. TCA can form on the outside of the cork. If so, make sure that you fully wipe off the neck of the bottle before pouring or decanting so that TCA doesn’t get into your glass or decanter.
Hey Chuck. Met you a couple of years ago at your biz.
Yeah. Exactly. The cork smelled like wet cardboard but not the wine. I had never seen that before.
I have also encountered this situation many times. That’s why I think it is pointless and sometimes deceiving to smell the cork.
except that you then should carefully wipe the neck off before serving. If the wine is also corked, it won’t help, but why risk contaminating an otherwise good bottle of wine?
I can nearly always smell TCA if it is present in the cork but hardly ever in the wine. Probably just my sense of smell but I check the cork first every time.
I guess that’s a good point.
If a cork smells corked, anymore I assume the wine has been affected. It may only be mildly affected, and may be drinkable, but I’d wager money that 99% of those bottles will compare poorly to an untainted backup bottle.
I also think the sheer scale of intensity of some wines can carry a light corking better than more delicate wines, so I’m not surprised to hear an Oz shiraz didn’t manifest taint.
It may not have been tainted, though.