The Auswine Forum

Red Bigot it seems we are kindred spirits

The only thing I despise more than corks are winemakers who care so little of their craft to bottle their wine with the blasted things.

I would rather ensure the integrity of my wine with a boring stelvin than pour some oxidised liquid into a glass because of some romantic notions of cork pulling.

James Halliday mentioned in his opening remarks as Chief Judge at the NWS last week (his final stint) that calling for a second sample of a corked wine was up to each panel chair. He also remarked that at the Adelaide Wine Show, Tim James directs that second bottles are NOT to be called for when a wine is corked. Second bottles were not to be called for if the wine was oxidised.

Also, of interest that Hardys/Constellation are sticking to corks for their premium wines and sparklings, there seemed to be a significant number of Hardys wines showing cork taint that may have prevented them winning a medal and it was remarked (not by JH) that "Arras is a lovely sparkling, it's a pity that about 30% are less than they should be due to cork problems".

That being said, we didn't strike too many tainted wines, even in the classes where there were up to 50/50 corks and screwcap, but a couple of times that I saw, when one was tainted the second bottle was also tainted. There was one tainted premium Tawny though.

I would wager that 99.9% of that wine tested was stored in optimum conditions which are way above the normal punter's standards, hence the generally unspoilt samples.

Stiff to cop a spoilt premium Tawny (stiffer if you paid top dollar for it)

Hill Of Grace wrote:I would wager that 99.9% of that wine tested was stored in optimum conditions which are way above the normal punter's standards, hence the generally unspoilt samples.

Stiff to cop a spoilt premium Tawny (stiffer if you paid top dollar for it)

HoG, storage conditions have nothing to do with cork taint, but may possibly affect tendency for oxidation. I've seen badly tainted examples of wine that has been bottled under cork for only 2 days.

And these days it's pretty easy to get tainted wines replaced if you follow a basic and logical procedure.

Thanks for the info Red Bigot

P.S - You software is terrific