Huon Hooke on Cork taint

[Red Bigot]

In today's Good Living in the SMH, can't find the article online.

He mentions declining a recent offer from Amorim of a free trip to Portugal and them mentions a long list of high-priced wines he's seen that were ruined by cork taint. He says he thinks the problem has worsened, and not only because there are so many hugely expensive wines now on the market that increase the per-bottle loss.

Sadly missing is any mention of consumer rights under the TPA.

Also in a later section information from Iain Riggs of Brokenwood that 3 out of 10 bottles of their cork-sealed semillons are undrinkable at 6 years from vintage, mostly due to random oxidation. Also another 3-4 of the 10 on the way out at that stage. Scary stats for semillon drinkers, he claims to use expensive corks, high sulphur, high carbon dioxide and it still happens.

[GraemeG]

Will read GL tonight, but I'm not at all surprised by anything stated. Tyrrells went to screwcaps on the Vat semillons primarily due to oxidation problems, not TCA.

I don't know whether corks have improved; obviously the bottled wine we open lags a few years behind supplies going to the wineries, but screwcaps have been in widespread use here since the 2000 vintage, and I've seen plenty of ruined bottles opened since then; 03 Bin 407s at shop tastings, etc. Will the % of TCA bottles drop when I'm opening cork-sealed wines in 5 years time? Maybe, but I'm not at all disposed to take the risk upon purchase any more. And it's a message I pass to every sales rep, winery owner or industry marketing bod I meet.

No, cork has done its dash I think. The notion of putting something so unreliable (I'm talking oxygen permeability levels here) into a bottle neck is so utterly non-food-grade that it just doesn't bear thinking about. It's for floor tiles and gaskets, not wine.

For some reason, the wine column of Good Living never seems to make it online. Most of the rest does, but not all.

cheers,
Graeme

[JamieBahrain]

Big issues here.

Personally, I believe a lot of taint in older Australian reds, goes down as bottle variation or the like. How many times have you noted comments on the forum about tainted old reds?

Experienced tasters have difficulty picking up taint in reds with tertiary development- unless it's at standout levels.

[mphatic]

Also in a later section information from Iain Riggs of Brokenwood that 3 out of 10 bottles of their cork-sealed semillons are undrinkable at 6 years from vintage, mostly due to random oxidation. Also another 3-4 of the 10 on the way out at that stage. Scary stats for semillon drinkers, he claims to use expensive corks, high sulphur, high carbon dioxide and it still happens.

Yep, as someone who loves aged semillon, these stats are really scary. This problem is not isolated to Brokenwood though. At the royal Queensland wineshow last year, a huge % of semillon in one of the classes (have details at home, update tomorrow) were faulty. Something like 30 or 40% !

This was also confirmed during the public tasting where, of the 18 Hunter Semillons I tasted, 4 were clearly corked. And these weren't just the bottom of the range wines either; they included Vat 1, Lovedale, and Elizabeth. Also, there were at least another 4 that had question marks next to them due to a slightly muted nose or short palate (admittedly some of these were in the 'dumb' phase due to their 3-4Y.O. age).

Comically however, there was one little incident that brought a smile to my face upon tasting the 97 Lovedale in the Gold medal winners area:

Corked. I asked the girl serving it to see whether it was corked, and low and behold she picked the bottle up, looked at it, and proclaimed “it looks OK”. I politely asked her to open another bottle, and upon doing so, the cork just crumbled away. Another bright lass came over to help, noticing the broken cork, then remarked “they all must be corked” as she pointed toward yet another bottle where the cork had broken in half and crumbled away. Hmm.. it was going to be a long afternoon.

And that's another issue - three of the Lovedales on the table and a Vat 1 in the normal area had soft corks that just crumbled. These were '97 and '99 vintages respectively. So if the mood isn't spoiled by cork taint, I guess it will be spoiled by bits of cork floating in your wine...

[Gary W]

Experienced tasters have difficulty picking up taint in reds with tertiary development- unless it's at standout levels.

That is a really odd statement. I find it MORE noticable. Do you mean people think it is a leafy aged smell instead of TCA? Maybe.

Of the 40 something 2005 Hunter Semillons I went through recently only two were sealed with cork - Rothbury and another one (I forget)..of course Tower Estate else still do as well..but practically no one else. The problems are sadly with excellent vintages like 99. Had a very tired new release 2001 Elisabeth on the weekend. Clearly oxidised. Semillon really seems to suffer with cork - or you just notice it so easily.

GW

[JamieBahrain]

Just an observation Gary.

I could count on one hand, the number of times I have read on the forums, tasters talking about mild taint in older red wines. What is an under performing old bottle, seems to get written off as bottle variation.

Mild taint in younger reds, shows itself in many ways - muted fruit, ghost taint that appears and reappears etc- and is commonly talked about and debated.

Not so in older wines. I suspect lower levels of TCA are easily camouflaged in tertiary development; coupled with a tasters lack of familarity with vintage development of a particular wine.

I am finding this is the case with wines I'm very familar with. Say, and icon Aussie shiraz, professionally cellared for over a decade. Of a case of twelve, there will often only be a single bottle 'tip down the sink tainted'. Four will drink beautifully, another few not so bad and the rest quite ho-hum and developed. A lot of this bottle variation is milder forms of taint I suspect.

St Hallett's has an old vintage of Old Block that suffers high levels of taint. Not much makes it's way back. It's getting harder to pick as the wine gets older and the mild, fruit muting taint of youth, seems to be easily confused as bottle development.

If 10% of red wine is corked in youth, by loose observation of reknowned tasters, I reckon about 3% of it is discovered at maturity.

[Murray]

Big issues here.

Personally, I believe a lot of taint in older Australian reds, goes down as bottle variation or the like. How many times have you noted comments on the forum about tainted old reds?

Jamie,

There is documentation (AWRI???) that suggests that taint can be reabsorbed into the cork in very old wine and also in oxidised wine.

This is also a factor in returning tainted wine to the winery. This was discussed by Jamie Goode in his critique/lambasting of a 'musty taint' survey in which he noted

There are two fundamental assumptions underlying the verification step in the WSA survey. The first is that TCA is stable enough that musty taint detected by assessors will still be detectable by the verifying laboratories up to a week later, when the wines are re-tasted. The second is that TCA is readily detectable against a background of oxidation, which will have occurred between the first tasting and the retasting of the ullaged bottles. Godden thinks that both of these assumptions are false.

When the AWRI began their first closure survey three years ago, they tested the stability of TCA in opened bottles of corked wine. ‘We tested ullaged bottles with a reasonably high level of TCA—15 ng/l. Ullaged bottles were recorked and left on a desk for 2 weeks. Just a trace of TCA was found: all the rest had been absorbed back into the cork.’ Godden thinks it is ‘quite probable’ that most of the TCA in the musty wines submitted for verification could have been absorbed back into the cork. For this reason, in their studies the AWRI insist that samples to be tested later for TCA should be transferred after opening to all-glass containers (with ground glass stoppers) or glass bottles with an aluminium foil barrier between the wine and the stopper. Plastic is no good because the TCA will all be absorbed by the plastic within a few days.

Godden also strongly disagrees that musty off-flavours will be readily detectable over the background of oxidation. ‘In the last 6 months’, he says, ‘we have done a major investigation in an insurance case where there has been random bottle oxidation, in which we have investigated how oxidation affects the perception of TCA.’ The AWRI carried out sensory analysis of all the bottles, together with chemical analysis of the oxidised bottles. The conclusion? ‘Oxidation has a massive effect on the ability of experienced tasters to assess TCA’.

The full text, and it is a worthy read is at http://www.wineanorak.com/mustytaint.htm.

In older wines we have age, and also degrees of oxidation coming into play.

[Davo]

Jamie,

There is documentation (AWRI???) that suggests that taint can be reabsorbed into the cork in very old wine and also in oxidised wine.

Not the same cork but. This study involved recorking the bottle with a new non-tainted cork and supposedly did show some reduction of taint character in the wine. However like you I cannot now recall who did the study.

[PeterO]

I was 1st able to detect TCA when touring wineries in McLaren Vale. A bottle offered for tasting was picked up as cork taint by a high flyer from the winery. He ordered the cellar door staff to open another bottle. Tasting the same wine (flagship Cab Sav) side by side really higlighted TCA affected wine when compared to non affected wine. Since then the rate of corked wine I experience is roughly 10%; for bottles under cork closure. The cellar staff person in question was a little embarassed. I myself find that taint often becomes more self evident after being openned for a short time with respect to being immediately openned. Some wines are so obviously tainted on openning that the issue does not arise. I have also experienced a wine with slight seepage before openning and the cork crumbled upon extraction. However, the wine was fine (1980 Grange openned in 1999). The wine was cellared poorly ( a gift 4 my 25th birthday ) which was kept out of direct light but no real temp control. Perhaps a testiment to Grange which I never purchase but would gladly imbibe if given the chance. Type of closure seriously affects my choice of purchase. I tend to purchase wine from between 12 - 60 dollar range. I really have to think hard about buying corked sealed wine at the higher end. The hassle of chasing up the retailer or winery for a credit is sometimes just not worth it. well thats my 2 cents worth for now.

[GraemeG]

I myself find that taint often becomes more self evident after being openned for a short time with respect to being immediately openned.

This is a widely recognised phenomenon. Standard practice if in doubt (at least in domestic situations) is to give the bottle another 15 minutes and then come back to it. Invariably the case is proved.

cheers,
Graeme

[Ian S]

Amorim seem to have quite a budget, as I've heard many comments from people ITB, being offered trips, with some declining and others going over (with at least a couple being awfully positive about cork afterwards).
It does concern me that they're spending so much on (at times dubious) marketing. I don't see Stelvin doing the same!

[JamieBahrain]

Last night I had a bottle of 1995 Henschke Abbott's Prayer. I pulled and smelt the cork- it was faintly 'corky'. I know the experts say this is no way to judge cork quality, but for me, it can be a giveaway.

Proceding, the bottle stink was spiritous & Tia Maria like. Wonderful. That creamy, mocha oak and plush, merlot dominated fruit of youth, will have definately integrated nicely in it's now, maturation window. The experts are right what they say, you can't judge a tainted wine by initial aromas off the cork.

But what's this? In the decanter the wine is very closed. Just some faint berries, earth, cedar oak- very tertiary. Any taint? No. None obvious. Will give some more air and see how it goes.

30 minutes later. Still not much on the nose. A little mustiness and tertiaries again; a big swirl brings out just faint berries.

In the mouth superb feel & structure. Everything is very tertiary and is that just a faint taste of TCA? Next sip it's OK. Still no plush and rounded Adelaide Hills fruit- like the glorious 94 Henschke Abbott's Prayer.

By the last glass the taint is still not a giveaway. If i was as familar with the development of this vintage, as say the 94, I would give a definite yay or nay to TCA in this bottle.

My case in point- by TCA, faintly muted fruit, camouflaged or mistaken as tertiary development, with the taster not experienced in the vintage development to give a qualified opinion. Mild TCA is overlooked in older wines in my opinion.

Or as Stephen Henschke noted in his experiments with cork versus stelvin in Keyneton Estate- many tasters preferred the freshness of stelvin to cork in mature bottles. How much of this preservation of freshness, is simply not the undue effects of very mild TCA?