Sniffing the cork

[Blake_Brown]

@P. ONeill

Here’s a related question. Can a cork be absolutely riddled with TCA and the wine be unaffected?

That’s the gist of a claim made by a retailer from whom I bought a decent bottle of '88 Pomerol a couple months back. The cork was reeking from moment I opened the bottle but I will say that the wine did not show a similarly blatantly obvious nose of TCA, though it was disappointingly mute (I believe its true that one of the effects of cork taint is to strip a wine of flavor) and was clearly “off” with a dirty, musty nose that didn’t blow off with a couple nights open in a fridge.

So I took it back - I bought it from a reputable retailer (I figured the wine would at lease be genuine, and the condition would be up to the gods) and to be fair they accepted it and gave me store credit, which was perfectly fine with me. I did, however, get a bit of a lecture from a gentleman who was summoned by the floor staff to taste my wine and who told me that he thought the wine was fine and that one can’t say that a wine is corked by smelling the cork, even if said cork smells of TCA to high heaven.

I’m not sure how this can be so given that the cork is the source of TCA in the first place. What do you guys think? Any feedback would be appreciated.

As you state Pete, there is a time when TCA has definitively effected the wine and it does not have that wet cardboard element. That can happened even when the cork is enudated with TCA and the wine has yet to express it other than lose its composure. Not only is the wine stripped of its fruit, but also its power evidenced most recently by a wimpy/ minimally fruity Corton Charlemagne I had earlier this week.

[Scott_Brunson]

I have the server pour me a small taste of the wine.
I sniff it and then taste it.

[John_Glas]

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/237538/This-Is-Spinal-Tap-Movie-Clip-Smell-The-Glove.html
I only smell the glove! Smelling the cork is pointless.

[D_Mowe]

Smelling cork has no bearing on if cork will taint wine or not. Even so, I always do it. But…I am a cork dork. Ha ha

[David_Glasser]

I smell and taste the wine to determine if the bottle is good. I often look for signs of seepage and feel the cork to see if it’s supple, spongy or brittle, but mostly out of curiosity, not to help me decide if the wine is good. I don’t normally sniff the cork, but might if it’s spongy or soaked just because those corks often have a nice aroma reminiscent of winery barrel rooms.

If the wine does have TCA I’ll usually sniff the cork, again out of curiosity. I can usually but not always smell it on the cork.

I’ve had a couple of bottles over the years where the cork smelled obviously of TCA from a foot away but the wine was fine. I think these were exposed after bottling, perhaps during packing or shipping. I’ve occasionally had a cardboard box (not a wine shipping box) reek of TCA.

[Jeff_Vaughan]

@cepotts

Smell the cork. It’s part of the whole wine experience… To me the cork is a tiny part of the personality of each bottle we meet.

This is how I feel. I probably don’t smell them more often than I do, but I like to smell the older corks. I don’t smell them to determine if there is TCA, but rather as part of the experience. I always look at the cork to see if there is writing, how spongey and long it is, how far has the wine soaked into it, etc. It is part of the fun for me.

[RichardFlack]

@John Morris

I have a dim recollection that the history of cork smelling went something like this.

1. Originally, waiters/somms presented the cork so the patron would know from the markings on the cork that it was the correct wine and that the cork was in sound condition.

2. Ignorant customers thought they were expected to do something more than look and started sniffing.

3. Then we were told that we shouldn’t sniff, and sniffing became a mark of poor (or pour?) breeding.

Does anyone recall hearing that version?

+1 on #1

And see articles on wine fraud…

[Ian_Sutton]

Very surprised to read that some people don’t find a cork smelling of TCA isn’t strongly correlated with TCA infection in the wine.

For me it’s not a given either way, but I do find them strongly correlated.

[DougS]

Often correlated, yes, but having found quite a few false negatives and false positives, I don’t see any point in checking the cork. Why not ignore the cork and smell the wine if I’m going to have to smell the wine to find out what’s really going on anyway?

[D_Mowe]

@Ian Sutton

Very surprised to read that some people don’t find a cork smelling of TCA isn’t strongly correlated with TCA infection in the wine.

For me it’s not a given either way, but I do find them strongly correlated.

It depends on where the tca is at on the cork whether it will taint the wine. If the top or sides are highly contaminated but bottom touching the wine is not, the cork will wreak of tca but wine will be sound. TCA doesn’t migrate through cork. This was studied by Dr. Paulo Lopes some yrs ago where he spot contaminated cork and analyzed the wine over time. My website is down for maintenance but I will link the study when my website is back up.

[Ian_Sutton]

@Doug Schulman

Often correlated, yes, but having found quite a few false negatives and false positives, I don’t see any point in checking the cork. Why not ignore the cork and smell the wine if I’m going to have to smell the wine to find out what’s really going on anyway?

Hi Doug
For me, it gives me warning that a little more focus may be needed when smelling / tasting the wine (if I smell TCA on the cork). Also there have been occasions when the wine was stripped of fruit, but TCA not so obvious in the wine (but more so on the cork). Not a substitute for then smelling and tasting the wine, but a useful indicator.

Fully agreed on the false positives and false negatives. FWIW I’m not the greatest at picking TCA - on a number of occasions I’ve sensed the wine stripped (and undoubtedly others when I didn’t know the wine, and just thought it poor), but without smelling the aromas that would give it away.
Regards
Ian

[John_Morris]

@P. ONeill

Here’s a related question. Can a cork be absolutely riddled with TCA and the wine be unaffected?

It seems so. See posts 11, 12 and 14 above. I can’t say because I’m not religious about sniffing the cork.

[Ed_Kurtzman]

When I’m pouring at a big consumer tasting, and I have to open 2 cases of wine before the tasting starts, I’ll pull the cork, sniff the wine side of the cork, and if that smells like what I expect from the wine, I’ll jam the cork back in, and open the next bottle. If the wine side of the cork is off, with TCA or something else, I pour wine in a glass, then smell and taste that. Rarely does the cork lie, but there are occasions when my quick judging of a wine’s soundness by sniffing the cork has failed, when the cork smelled fine, but the wine was corked. I can not recall a time when the wine side of the cork smelled like TCA, but the wine was sound. It’s either full on corked, or so muted, it’s not worth drinking.

Restaurants are a different story. If I’m out with my wife or wine friends, I’ll sniff the wine side of the cork if it’s presented to me. However, corks are presented less and less as the years go by. But even if I smell TCA on the cork, I always confirm cork taint by smelling the wine in the glass.

[Ian_Sutton]

Damn this thread

2014 Burlotto Barbera, lugged back from a winery visit… you guessed it. Corked.

FWIW the (bottom of the) cork smelled strongly of TCA, whilst on the nose of the wine it wasn’t obvious, but it was there in the background. I had a taste to be sure, and whilst it wasn’t badly stripped and the wine recognisable, there was just a little missing and the TCA came through here as well.

In this instance, the strong aromas on the cork, might well have saved me having half a glass before I spotted the taint - like I said, I’m not especially sensitive to it.

[Anton_D]

@Ed Kurtzman

When I’m pouring at a big consumer tasting, and I have to open 2 cases of wine before the tasting starts, I’ll pull the cork, sniff the wine side of the cork, and if that smells like what I expect from the wine, I’ll jam the cork back in, and open the next bottle. If the wine side of the cork is off, with TCA or something else, I pour wine in a glass, then smell and taste that. Rarely does the cork lie, but there are occasions when my quick judging of a wine’s soundness by sniffing the cork has failed, when the cork smelled fine, but the wine was corked. I can not recall a time when the wine side of the cork smelled like TCA, but the wine was sound. It’s either full on corked, or so muted, it’s not worth drinking.

Cool insight!

[Randy_Bowman]

I smell the corks to see if I can smell anything. If I smell wine, that means my allergies are in retreat and the wine will be great. If I smell TCA, they should have noticed it in the winery before bottling.

Carrie has a pretty sensitive sense of smell and usually picks up TCA on the cork, open bottle or glass. If it’s real light it might take her a sip or two.