Wine Tips: Corked Wine ~ When a bottle just isn’t right
Have you ever had a ‘corked’ bottle? Wine is fragile in the barrel and in the bottle and sometimes you may open a bottle that just doesn’t ‘taste right’. It may be ‘corked’.
Corks are natural products, and microorganisms can hang out in them. A wine is said to be ‘corked’ when it has come in contact with a contaminated cork during the aging process. Don’t look at the cork; don’t smell the cork; don’t look for bits of cork in your glass—none of these will tell you if a wine is corked. The only way to identify cork taint is to smell and taste your wine. A tainted cork can produce a musty odor in the wine. Stick your nose in your glass and sniff around for notes of moldy, musty smell. On the palate, it will be astringent, lacking in fruit, with a raspy finish.
It happens to even our small-batch wines. If you open a ‘corked bottle’ of Condor’s Hope, let us know/ bring it to us at the Market and we’ll replace it. We will know you’re carefully tasting your wine.