How To Tell if Wine is Corked
When your favourite wine tastes a bit off, it’s usually because it’s become ‘corked’. Corked wine is often mistakenly thought of as a term for when a small part of the cork has broken off and is left floating in the wine, but it actually refers to a change in how the wine should smell and taste. So, what causes a wine to become corked? How do you spot a corked wine? And is a corked wine safe to drink? We answer all of this and more.
What is corked wine?
Corked wine is a common wine fault which affects around 2-3% of bottles, and it’s caused by a chemical compound called TCA (or if you want the technical name its 2, 4, 6, Trichloroanisole). With cork being a natural product produced from tree bark, it contains bacteria and fungi. When these come into contact with chlorine and phenolic compounds TCA can be produced.
These chlorine and phenolic compounds can be found in a couple of different places. Firstly, they can be found commonly in nature where they can come into contact with tree bark, resulting in it becoming contaminated. The corks then produced using this bark contain the TCA and therefore result in wine becoming infected. The other place which these compounds can be found is in certain chlorine based sanitisation and cleaning products. These were once used to clean the corks during production and as a result could also lead to TCA being formed in the corks. However this method of cleaning corks has been been mostly phased out to avoid this.
As you can see, this is certainly a little more complicated than just a piece of cork breaking off into the bottle!
What does corked wine taste like?
Visibly a corked wine won’t look any different, it is only when you smell or taste the wine in which you will be able to spot cork taint. Aromas and flavours of soggy, wet or rotten cardboard are the biggest giveaways, with the bright fruit flavours you might often expect becoming dampened and dull.
The extent of the cork taint can vary depending on how much TCA has seeped into the wine and also the wine drinkers sensitivity to it. Sometimes it can be barely noticeable and other times it can knock your socks off the second you open the bottle.
Is it OK to drink corked wine?
Corked wine is perfectly safe to drink and won’t cause any harm if it’s drunk, it simply just won’t taste very nice. Some people think that letting air get to the wine will cause the bad smell and taste to go away, however this is not the case and can in fact make it worse.
What can you do about it?
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to make the wine drinkable, once it’s corked, it’s corked. However, if you have bought the wine from a retailer or restaurant you can often send it back for a refund or replacement.
