About the Author

A Burgundy Wine Artilce for Your Viewing

Cork Taint: Something to Wine About

Drinking wine is a pleasurable experience. It leaves us relaxed, at ease, cheerful, and packed full of antioxidants. But, it doesn?t come without its risks. While there is the risk of overindulgence, a hangover, or a Merlot stain on the brand new white carpet, there is also another risk that many of us don?t think about. This is the risk of cork taint. With the ability to stand between our wine and our enjoyment, cork taint can really contaminate the drinking experience.

What is Cork Taint?

Cork taint is a term that refers to an undesirable taste or odor found in certain bottles of wine. While no one knows for sure what cork tastes like, with cork not being a hot item listed on the menus of fancy restaurants, a wine is labeled to have cork taint when it tastes a bit off. Some people describe wine with cork taint as tasting of must or of mildew while others describe it as tasting like damp newspapers (why these people know what must, mildew, or damp newspaper even taste like is a whole different issue altogether).

Not everyone who drinks wine tainted with cork may realize it; some wines hide it better than others, attempting to cover the taint with flavor and body. Some people may also find that they are less or more sensitive to it: one person may not even notice that their wine is tainted while another person may take one sip, spit, and ? in soap opera fashion ? throw their wine glass against the wall, pour their bottle down the drain, and go and shoot JR.

What Causes Cork Taint?

While cork taint ruins the entire bottle of wine, the consumers can?t fairly blame the cork, causing tiny tear drops to drip from its pores. The cork alone is not at fault. Instead, the main cause of cork taint is TCA, or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole for those of you who majored in chemistry. When a wine contains TCA, it adopts the odor and taste for which TCA is famous: damp and moldy. TCA is harmless to humans ? ingesting it won?t cause a person to widen their eyes and grab their throat like someone who has just been poisoned ? but it is fatal to wine. Because TCA covers the wine?s natural aromas and flavors with the aromas and flavors of a foreign chemical, any wine with TCA is destined for a life in the drain of the kitchen sink.

Cork can often become tainted with TCA when fungus couples with the chlorphenol compound and becomes chloranisole. For any of you not wearing a pocket protector, this basically means that TCA can get on a cork when the cork is tainted with industrial pollutants present in things such as wood preservatives and pesticides. The role that industrial pollutants play has made cork taint more prevalent in the modern wine making world.

While TCA is the most common cause of cork taint, this is not always the case: sometimes TCA may be framed by other less common, lesser known, and more elusive compounds. Because these compounds have their own aroma and flavor, they can taint a cork as much as TCA. Cork taint can also occur, in a page out of wine irony, through the chlorine bleaching process used for sterilization.

How often does Cork Taint Occur?

Luckily, cork taint isn?t running rampant among the wine bottles of the world; bottles aren?t living in fear of perpetually becoming a victim. However, the rate of incidence is a bit up in the air. While some people predict that up to 5 percent of bottles are tainted, others predict that the number may be as high as 15 percent. As long as this number is above zero, research will be made to try and find a way to rid cork taint from the wine world.

While this research is conducted, a controversy between cork and other forms of stoppage (such as plastic closures or screwcaps) has arisen. The media attention given to cork taint has caused many consumers to seek other non-cork related products. This, however, could prove detrimental to the economy in places that rely on the production of cork, such as Portugal. It could also hinder the environment: many species of birds and animals build their habitats in the trees that produce cork.

What Are People Doing About Cork Taint?

With cork producers refusing to sit back and watch their product become replaced by synthetic manufacturing, a resolution to cork taint continues to be sought. Some producers of cork have found that harvesting the bark from the higher areas of cork oak trees and doing away with using chlorine for sterilization has helped lower the rate of cork tainted with TCA. There are even purification and filtration systems in development that may potentially remove the cork taint from wine and make the bottle consumable once more.

While this plague continues to affect the wine community, most major cork producing companies spend millions of dollars per year hoping to find a cure for cork taint. Through research and perseverance, it?s possible that cork taint may not be a factor in wines of the future. In the meantime, those of you who are affected by cork taint - those of you who have lost some bottles of your loved ones to this disease - can only wait and see and remember that potentially tainted wine is better than no wine at all.

A synopsis on Burgundy Wine.

Cork Taint: Something to Wine About


Drinking wine is a pleasurable experience. It leaves us relaxed, at ease, cheerful, and packed full of antioxidants. But, it doesn?t come without its ...


Click Here to Read More About Wine ...

Recommended Burgundy Wine Items

Beaune 1er Cru - Hospices de Beaune - Cuvee Rousseau Deslandes


We purchased this dry red wine at the Hospices de Beaune auction that was held November 17th, 2002, and we have been eagerly anticipating its arrival! Ripe red fruit (strawberry & raspberry) dominate the nose of this 1er Cru, along with notes of violet, licorice and a hint of toasted bread. It is clean and fresh, well-structured and well-balanced, with soft, ripe tannins. The finish is round and elegant and vanilla is persistent throughout the palate. This will pair well with dishes of either red or white meat, grilled, roasted or marinated, as well as more sophisticated dishes such as veal cooked with tarragon or turkey dishes. The Cuvee Rousseau-Deslandes is really the quintessential French Pinot Noir from Burgundy. BHB02 BHB02


Price: 108.99 USD



Current Burgundy Wine News

Franche-Compte Cuisine - French Gastronomy from the Doubs

Sat, 03 May 2008 03:25:09 PDT
Rustic cuisine from France. Avoid the crowds of next door Burgundy and enjoy, the best: in wine and cheese: Morbier and Compte cheeses, Vin Jaune and Vin de Paille wines

Burgundy Festivals - France | Travel Signposts Blog

Fri, 02 May 2008 23:17:30 PDT
Burgundy may be the land of gastronomy and great wines, however it has lots to offer to visitors of all ages ...

French Wine Regions 101

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 08:28:56 PDT
Short article giving one-two sentences about 6 popular French wine regions. Covering Champagne, Bordeaux, Alsace, Burgundy, Cote du Rhone, and Longuedoc.

WSJ.com - The Right Stuff

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:39:10 PST
The just-arriving 2005 Burgundys from two particular regions are the most consistently good vintage of red Burgundy that our wine experts have tasted for this column.

Wines of FreshDirect: Meaty Red Cahor-bavor

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:08:16 PST
The red-headed step child to France’s favorite red wine producing children, Bordeaux and Burgundy, the region Cahors is producing quality red blends of their grapes—malbec, merlot and tannat—that has a lot of value-oriented consumers taking them seriously.

Fareham Wine Cellar, Idiosyncratic Spirits and Liqueurs

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:22:38 PST
A searchable list of interesting and some pretty obscure spirits and liqueurs. There a fine Cognacs, Armagnacs, Calvados and Italian and Spanish Brandies, some of which date back to the early 1900s. From the Burgundy region, there is a massive selection of rare liqueurs that would be ideal for cocktails. These include Cassis, Peche and many more.


Cheap Wine
Italian Wine
Fine Wine | Fine Wines

Labels: Wine Importers

&type=page">