What does it mean to cork wine?!


Question: Generally, the cork has been infected with a fungus that produces a chemical which makes the wine taste funny, or 'corked'


Answers: Generally, the cork has been infected with a fungus that produces a chemical which makes the wine taste funny, or 'corked'

when the cork reacts with the wine

heres some info

Cork taint is a broad term referring to a set of undesirable smells or tastes found in a bottle of wine, especially spoilage that can only be detected after bottling, aging and opening. Though modern studies have shown that other factors can also be responsible for taint – including wooden barrels, storage conditions and the transportation of corks and wine – the cork is normally considered to be responsible, and a wine found to be tainted on opening is said to be "corked".

The chief cause of cork taint is the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in the wine. Corked wine containing TCA has a characteristic odor, variously described as resembling a moldy newspaper, wet dog, or damp basement. In almost all cases of corked wine the wine's native aromas are reduced significantly, and a very tainted wine is completely undrinkable (though harmless). While the human threshold for detecting TCA is measured in the single-digit parts per trillion, this can vary by several orders of magnitude depending on an individual's sensitivity. Detection is also complicated by the olfactory system's particularly quick habituation to TCA, making the smell less obvious on each subsequent sniff.

The production of TCA in wine is complex, but most results when naturally-occurring airborne fungi are presented with chlorophenol compounds, which they then convert into chloroanisole. Chlorphenols taken up by cork trees are an industrial pollutant found in many pesticides and wood preservatives, which may mean that the incidence of cork taint has risen in modern times. Chlorphenols can also be a product of the chlorine bleaching process ironically used to sterilise corks, which has led to the increasing adoption of methods such as peroxide bleaching.

TCA is responsible for the vast majority of cases of cork taint, but other less common and less known compounds that can cause different varieties include guaiacol, geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), octen-3-ol and octen-3-one - each has its own aroma, all of them considered objectionable in wine

It is similar slang as put a lid.
Sometimes when you talk too much, or have someone they might as you to cork the wine on put a lid, or zip your mouth,

Thanks Al, youve saved me trying to explain that.

Don't make yourself look a plonker by complaing to the waiter that you have cork in your wine - it's perfectly consumable.

Go with Lexus. Short and reasonably accurate.

"corked" wine is a generic term for when a wine appears to be off.

Some reasons for wines being off are indeed because of the cork as it is a living breathing product.

Other reasons include that when the wine is being bottled, the bottle may itself not be sterile leading to infection. The wine being past its best and therefore "off".

Sotheby's Wine Atlas written by Tom Stevenson has an appendage giving a comprehensive list of problems that "affect" the wine and therefore seemingly off. Hope it helps.

when u open a bottle of wine & the cork crumbles into the wine bottle...then you have wine with bits of cork in it...it has been corked.





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