Thirty days and the corked wine graveyard

WINE TALK
1

Michael Madrigale, the sommelier at Bar Boulud, posts a list of corked wines he’s opened in the past thirty days:

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Over 50 bottles, some large format, from many wine regions…all headed down the drain and to the recycling bin.

What’s your list of corked wines in the past month?

2

Wow, that’s a significant list!

I’m surprised by the number of corked '06’s and '07’s.

My corked wines this year were two Barolos ('03 Pio Cesare and '00 Prunotto Bussia (a trade with Carrie Bowman! Girl!!!)) and an '07 Dehlinger Rose, of all things. I’m sure there have been more, but those are the most memorable.

3

Been lucky, only one bad bottle

Doubtful. I think your palate just sucks.
neener

4

'05 Produttori Barbaresco last night had a whiff of TCA, but thankfully the wine hadn’t been overwhelmed. I compared it to the hard skin that develops on pudding that can be broken through and mixed in seamlessly.

Have had very good fortune of late.

5

That was just your punishment for being a babykiller

6

We had a Burgundy Grand Cru tasting on Thursday. I haven’t written up my notes yet and there were no corked wines, but a 1990 DRC Echezeaux and a 1985 La Tache both showed significant signs of abuse and were quite unimpressive.

Also, a 1990 Mt. Veeder Cab may have been a little corked. It was off and some thought that was the reason.

A 1989 Knapp Finger Lakes Cab was a bit past its prime. blush

7

Heh, I deserve that! This was the standard Produttori, and the tannins weren’t as aggressive in its youth as some of the others I’ve had. But still - point taken! [oops.gif]

8

I think my palate must suck too in this respect. I pretty rarely encounter corked wines knock on wood

9

10

Last night at a friend’s 65th birthday- both 1991 Clos St. Denis from Domaine Dujac and 1955 Yquem were corked. But we had too much wine on the table already, and if everything had been pristine, would not have been able to even moderately function this morning- so some silver lining I suppose. Mag of '85 Roty Charmes-Chambertin filled the void for the Clos St. Denis and we had both '76 Climens and '55 Suduiraut already opened when the Yquem was opened and proven to be undrinkable, so things could have been a lot more painful than they were.