Something Smells Funky

It doesn't happen often, but every now and then one has the misfortune of opening a corked bottle of wine. "What's this?", you ask. "Something smells funky. Could it be my date?" Slow down Romeo, your wine is corked. Which could also mean your goose is cooked, if you don't know how to handle the situation.

"Corked" is a term used to describe wine that has been affected by a faulty cork. It is estimated that 3 to 5 percent of wines are ruined by tainted corks, which may not seem like much to you, but think about the fact that there is no way of telling until the bottle is opened. Loosely translated this could mean that 3 to 5 percent of the wines in your cellar may be tainted. This can be bad for those who have irreplacable wines (older vintages) in their cellar. Of course most of us don't even have a wine cellar, but understanding what corked wine is may prevent you from being too embarassed to return a bad wine in a restaurant or to your wine shop. Oh yes, you should return them to the place where it was purchased, because the retailer has the option of returning it to their wholesaler, and so on, and so on, until ultimately (in most cases) the vineyard is the only one taking a loss. Sad for them, but true.

Why do wineries use corks to begin with? Well, corks, which are made from the bark of an oak tree found in Spain and Portugal, are light, compressable, and swell to fit the bottle's neck, making for a tight seal. However, they can also leak, dry out, and taint the wine with a chemical compound called 246-TCA (2,4,6-Trichloroanisole) which is how we get a corked bottle of wine. Even with the long history of cork usage as wine bottle stoppers, many growers are advocating plastic corks and screw-top caps as the wave of the future, and I'm certainly not opposed, but I will continue to take my chances with the natural cork, if only to enjoy the traditions and ceremonies surrounding the opening and drinking of wine.

For more information on corks and "corked" wine, check out the links listed below:

• The Natural Cork Quality Council
  
• The Cork Cycle
  
• 30 Second Wine Advisor