Cork taste?

[hdhunter]

Has anyone else experienced a bottle of aged wine that has taken on a bad taste from the cork?

Lately I have had 2 or 3 bottles (out of 20) that had a bad taste. It seems as if the taste has come from the cork. The cork itself has a strong smell (which is what the wine taste like) but there is no visible mold or anything.

I am using #9 premium corks but I do not have the best storage/aging area for my wine (too much humidity and too warm). The corks were soaked before I bottled.

any ideas?

 

[JWMINNESOTA]

Cork Taint is a distinct possibility, I haven't as yet experience it.

 

[grapeman]

What you are experiencing is indeed known as cork taint. It is the primary reason for the push in certain circles to move towards screw caps. Commercially they figure on a certain percentage of bottles to develop it. Soaking doesn't help much in eliminating it at the beginning. The bark on the tree gets infected, so the cork is doomed from the beginning. As cork bark they harvest gets younger and younger the problem gets worse. If you buy good quality corks it reduces the chances of it happening. Over the years I have had only two bottles that I had it in. Edited by: appleman

 

[masta]

I have seen this in one bottle back when I first started making wine and was using cheaper grade natural cork. The issue with these types of corks (cheap and expensive)is that they are cut from bark and have pits and channels in them. Soaking them may seem like the right thing to do as many folks and books will tell you but it can cause more harm than good. The reason is that soaking can activate spoilage organisms on the cork or in the channels and pits. I know you are thinking that I am using sulfite solution and this shouldn't happen. After the sulfur dioxide gas dissipates, the remaining liquid can activate bacteria and carry it out of the cork and into the wine as it ages.


I had tried many types of corks and found a good quality agglomerate like the Fine Vine Wines Perfect Agglomerate #9 X 1.75 a solution to this. It is an excellent value and was so impressed withthis corkI ordered 1000 custom printed and won't use anything else.


Look for the upcoming newsletter in November as plenty more info on corks will be the featured article.

 

[Dean]

Anything chlorine related can bring on cork taint. Tap water contains chlorine in a lot of cities. Not enough to spoil a whole batch of corks, but enough to get one or two. Like Appleman said, there is a percentage of all commercial wine that has it. Estimates have been as high as 8-15% of all wine under cork that has it. I've had it twice so far. One was on a bottle I gave to a friend. They didn't want to say anything to me, and when I tasted it, I said, take the bottle and pour it out. I'll get you another 2 to make up for this.

 

[hdhunter]

Wow, thanks! I have had 3 so far. I know there were two different orders of corks used.

Well, good news is it's nothing I did!