Cork taint within a case

[Duncan]

Hi all,

Yet another question about cork taint/TCA. We recently had three bottles of corked wine in one case (1998 Koonunga Hill) and called Penfolds. They happily sent us three replacement bottles (thanks).

The comment that puzzled me was that they said that it wasn't so unusual because the cork taint could pass from one bottle to another within the case. I'd never heard of that before, has anyone else?

Cheers, Duncan
(Rumours of my death have been exaggerated)

[michel]

Duncan
i would have thought it would have been a batch problem rather than bottle to bottle- if that was the case then the cellar is in problems as cork taint is in there waiting to be discovered.

[Guest]

A tainted cork can affect those around it in the bag and then in the bottling hopper. These bottles can conceivably stay in proximity into the case.

I had not heard of bottle transfer from bottle to bottle within a case.

[BA]

Hi Duncan,

I once had 4 from a case tainted. They were not all together in the case and bottles sitting in between the corked ones were fine. This was from a 5yo case that hadn't been opened, so I do not think it can happen inside the carton. I agree with the Guest here that it most likely happened from corks sitting together in storage or in the bottling hopper. They are likely to end up in the same carton. I have found that I rarely come across 1 corked bottle in a case. It's either a TCA free case or 2+ get hit.
Kudos to Summerfield for replacing the 4.

cheers
BA

[TORB]

Kudos to Summerfield for replacing the 4.

Hi BA,

I didnt know that Summerfield made Koonunga Hill.

Dunc, good to have you back.

[Duncan]

Thanks all, I though they were talking #$%^. Most likely it was a bad batch of corks, I'd say I've had another half-dozen from the case that have not been corked (and have generally been excellent).

It was also the 1998 Bin 389 that had cork problems, I think Davo even took his case back. That only affected one batch of wine, identifiable from the lot number. I doubt they used the same corks.

Cheers, Duncan

P.S. If anyone is interested, my fav wine of the year has been the Battley Syrah 2002. Not one to keep, and personally I wouldn't want to distract from it by having a meal at the same time.

[Wizz]

P.S. If anyone is interested, my fav wine of the year has been the Battley Syrah 2002. Not one to keep, and personally I wouldn't want to distract from it by having a meal at the same time.

I had a bottle of this last night. Good gear but I still think theres too much Viognier in it. Notes to come after I attack the rest of the bottle tonight!