My Top 10 Cork Taint Stories: Numbers 5 to 1
Last week, I detailed the first half of my Top 10 all-time cork taint stories. Today, I bring you numbers 5 to 1. Read more about what cork taint is here.5. Cork tainted bottle at a retail Read more...
My Top 10 Cork Taint Stories: Numbers 10 to 6
Cork taint is a scourge on the wine industry. Despite great efforts to reduce or eliminate it, the issue continues.Cork taint is caused by a contaminant, most commonly trichloroanisole, that can at low levels mute the Read more...
An example of why smelling a wine cork matters
Recently I wrote about the importance of smelling the cork when opening a bottle of wine. The argument goes that it gives another opportunity to pick up cork taint – a contaminant, such as trichloroanisole (TCA), that Read more...
Eight takeaways on closure choice and cork taint in Washington wine
Screwcap, DIAM, and Nomacorc (pictured here) are the three most popular alternative closures in Washington Below is a tabulation of closure choice and cork taint data from my tastings for Wine Enthusiast in 2018. I Read more...
On closure choice and cork taint in Washington wine
As many of you know, I review Washington and Idaho wines for Wine Enthusiast magazine. Throughout the year, I keep a tabulation of wines that use natural cork closures as well as various types of Read more...
Yes, Cork Taint is Still a Problem
The following article was published on February 2, 2018 at Wine Enthusiast. Based on my talks with winemakers over the years, I get the impression that many think cork taint, a contaminant that can negatively Read more...
No, the Cayuse cork problem was not ‘cork taint’
The wine world was shocked on October 25th when Walla Walla Valley’s Cayuse Vineyards announced that it would not be releasing many of its 2015 vintage wines due to problems associated with the cork closures. The problem described Read more...
How to Return a Corked Bottle of Wine (and Why You Should)
January’s Virtual Tasting is tonight from 7-8pm Pacific. Read about how to participate here.The incidence of cork taint has been variously reported to be as little as 0.7% and as much as 10%. However, for Read more...
Corked Counter – July Update
Well folks, 2011 is more than half over and it’s time to take a look back at how the Corked Counter fared over the first six months of the year.To recap, at the beginning of Read more...