Last 2 bottles, definitely corked.

I would say out of 100 bottles, I've had 2 without a cork.

I assume you are talking about cork taint. never ran across one yet. About half of my wine is home made. Most experienced wine makers and of course wineries know not to use bleach or other chlorine bleach based cleaners. Also synthetic corks do not have this problem and you get a lot more of those these days.

I've only ever had it happen once and it was very obvious. When my wife took the cork out there was wine all through the cork and it smelled awful.

I'd say maybe 10% of the bottles aren't corked, but have a sealed screw top. I've found that the presence of a cork, real or synthetic, does not change the wining experience.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Once in 20 years. More and more bottles screw topped now so there is that. No reason to put cork in other than tradition as far as I can see like the screw top.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

If wine is "corked" (i.e, the cork is tainted by a naturally occurring fungus that reacts with chemicals used to sterilize wine making equipment to create 2,4,6 trichloroanisole (TCA))it will have an odour of wet cardboard. The odour will not dissipate no matter how long you let the wine breathe. The fruit flavours in the wine will be dull or overwhelmed by the TCA. The wine is not dangerous to drink but it will not be pleasant.

Most wineries have phased out the use of the chemicals that react with the fungus after the discovery in the 1990s of their role in tainting the wine. Screw tops and synthetic corks together with much less use of chlorine - based cleaners means that corked wines are getting less and less common but it still happens. Of bottles sealed with natural cork, I come across corked ones about 3 to 5 bottles out of 100. That is down from as much as 1 in 10 from 20 years ago.

Just because one bottle from a case is corked does not mean that the other bottles are infected. Open another bottle. If you think it is corked after pouring a bit into a glass and swirling it, put the cork back in the bottle and take it (and the rest of the case) back to where you bought it. If it is corked, almost every wine seller will take it back and give you a refund or store credit. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

John

Personally, I've had two; a 1990 Pomerol and a 1994 Cali Cab. I've been a party to three others, all of which were '80s and '90s vintages. At the rate I drink/share wine, obviously-corked bottles are definitely less than 1/100, and that comes from consuming a much older mix of wines.

These days, I expect that number to be approaching zero.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

I would echo this experience.

I would say I've had less than 1/100, probably 1/500 that have a real cork. I haven't had any from screw caps or synthetic cork that I can remember.
Like you said, you'll know it when you smell it. Think wet socks or wet cardboard. When I first started drinking wines, I got the benefit of having one at a wine shop wine tasting. The presenter called everyone over and let them smell it for educational purposes. Another thing to look for is seepage in the cork. Cork should only be "wet" on the bottom where it touches the wine, if you see the wine stain has seeped up the sides of the cork it will more than likely be corked or some degree of corked.

I agree that there's no difference between real cork, a plasti-cork, or a screw cap. My gf and I went a little nutty over the past year with some of those online wine deals, Heartwood&Oak, and we had 90+ bottles in the house at the peak. I would venture to say that less than 20% are screw top or plasti-cork. I was expecting more.

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Gnothi Seauton.

Maybe 3-4 times in >20 years of drinking wine, and on each occasion it was an older bottle. It was also very clear each time, you couldn't kid yourself that the wine was OK.

I've also had some wines that were "stewed", where the fruit flavors have turned all raisin on me. This will happen if wine is kept in a too hot environment. Sometimes a California Zinfandel will exhibit a raisin flavor profile (on purpose), but this goes way beyond that.

Then there's the oxidized wine from something left open too long (which frequently happens at bars/restaurants). Kinda tough to describe that smell/taste, but it's obvious. Whenever I order a glass I ask when it was opened.

But there is a difference between screw tops and plastic corks on the one hand and natural cork on the other even apart from the possibility of TCA taint with natural cork. Unlike the new types of stoppers, natural cork does let small amounts of air into the bottle and allows small amounts of the wine to evaporate through the cork if you store the wine for a long time. Since most (95% or so by volume) of wine is sold to be opened and drunk within weeks of purchase, this is a non-issue for most wine and there is little reason to use natural cork in those wines.

Part of what makes an old wine complex, though, is the oxidation that natural cork permits. In very old wines, you can see a marked reduction in the level of the wine in the bottle. In the wine business, that extra space is called "ullage."Some Port houses and snooty French Chateaux will, replace the cork and "top-up" and bottles when the ullage gets below "top shoulder" - for a hefty fee of course.

The benefit of natural cork is not just for expensive wines, either. For example wines from Madiran and Cahors in France are typically sold about 2 to 3 years after harvest. They are remarkably inexpensive [for example, 2013 Chateau Laplace Madiran is available in Ontario for CDN $17.95 or about US $13 - other Madirans sell for much less] but, especially Madiran, are practically undrinkable for 7 years or more. After aging, they are sublimely good - in part due to the slight oxidation through the cork.

John

The woman and I are in a sorta race to not have to transport full wine bottles with us when we are supposed to move back west this summer. We didn't buy that much wine with the intent to ever age any wine for significant amount of time. I'm doing my best to reduce our supply, and she's not helping as much as I'd like. ;-) This is interesting to know though. Thanks.

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Gnothi Seauton.

There's a very easy solution to the problem of drinking wine that's been open too long - only order it by the bottle!

I've had the stewed thing before, and also just older wines that are either a little past their best, or haven't been kept in great conditions. Generally find this is more of a problem with a wine I've kept at home or been given by a friend though - cheaper restaurants just don't keep wine around long enough for it to be a problem, and I generally don't like ordering older wines even in good restaurants since they generally need to breathe so really you need to order in advance to get the wine at it's best. Plus I don't like spending a lot of money on wine in restaurants given the mark-up, I'd rather source the really good stuff at home for a third of the price.

Fair point - though sometimes they look at me funny when I drink a whole bottle of wine by myself when traveling for work. 0:-)

As long as you're still using a glass and not going straight from the bottle you're OK!

I'm not certain whether people are being smart-asses or just don't know the term. "Corked" does not mean "having a cork."

"Corked" wine means the wine has become contaminated with cork taint (as opposed to BLeP's taint, which is raw from all the moose sex). Cork taint is not simply the taste of a cork. Rather it is caused by the presence of a chemical compound called TCA (2,4,6 - trichloroanisole).

Now, obviously, "corked" wine needs a cork to become corked," but that is not what the term means.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

once out of ~ 1 bottle per week for the last 10 years = 500 bottles?

And if it corked there isn't any question. I would call it undrinkable, not unpleasant.

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Out of 100, >5 I would guess. In fact pretty rare IME and we drink a lot of wine. I can only remember a few I did not think tasted right and one specifically that you could see the separation in the glass.

If it's a wine I'm not sure I care for the taste I will also use the attached. Which is also fun for dinner parties. Serve the same wine for a tasting, one aerated and one straight pour. The difference is pretty stark.

https://www.vinturi.com/...ed-wine-aerator.html

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

I would guess less than 1/100, I can only think of 2 or 3 bottles that were so bad I poured them out, there have been more maybe closer to 2/100 that aren't quite right but not so bad as to be undrinkable just not as good as they should be. That would be my recollection of the last 5 years or so of wine drinking that would be close to 1,000 bottles.

Ben

I cannot put an exact number on it, but I have had at least 4-5 bottles of corked wine. It's really apparent as soon as you smell it and it tastes fairly terrible. A couple of those were while at a restaurant...and a few at home.

The ones at home, I still drank. Thankfully, it still had the desired effect.

I drink a lot of wine. Have for years. Only twice can I recall tasting wine that was corked. It can be evident from the smell, but it's obvious when tasting.

One of the bottles was less than 10 years old. The other was much older. Neither were originally bought by me, so i couldn't verify their care over the years, which can make a difference.

You'll know it's corked because it's undrinkable, pretty much to any palate.

I've tasted many wines that are crappy. But the difference is you can drink them if you want, they're just not good.

It's easily been over 10 years since I last experienced a "corked" wine. I think it's pretty rare unless you encounter lots of older wines.

The boxed wine I drink never seems to have this problem.