"Corked" Wines and Alternative Closures

Lately, I have been discovering a disconcertingly high incidence of "corked" wines, especially among those selling for Under $20 a bottle. So here I am addressing the subject of bottle closures: corks and alternative methods of sealing.

Most corked wines are due to 2,4,6-trichloroansiole, called "TCA" for short. This is caused by a chlorine contaminant on flawed corks, usually on rim of the cork, where it comes into contact with the wine. This contaminant, situated in a damp crevice, imparts a "musty" character to a wine (only a few parts per trillion are needed for this to happen). Another situation where corkiness occurs is when the cork facing the wine has striations of say about 1/64ths of an inch deep along the surface. The result is a puckered taste, like damp cork bark, although TCA is generally the culprit. This can happen even with recently bottled wines. In any case, estimates of instances of "corked" wines have generally been around 6 to 8% of the total.

That said, I am all in favor of alternative closures, especially in wines where using high grade corks are economically unfeasible. I really don't care what type of closure it is, whether it be the "Stelvin" screwcap, plastic or composite (glued) cork. A particularly innovative closure is a glass stopper which goes on top of the neck and then is "finished" with a capsule cover. One winery that does this is Syncline Cellars in the Columbia Gorge (the stoppers come in handy for capping left over wine). Some wineries see resistance to non cork closures by consumers who relish the resounding "pop" of a cork. The Balboa winery in Walla Walla found a solution in using composite corks when experimenting with them and screw caps. The winery found that customers largely favored the composite closures.

In the final analysis, if you want to be assured of a cork finished wine that doesn't smell musty or taste like cork bark, you will have to pay enough for a wine that has high quality corks (which cost $2 and up apiece). However, there may still be other issues concerning tainted wines, usually resulting from poor cellar practices, such as brettanomyces, acetic aldehydes, and other contaminants.

Note: For another interesting discussion of corks and alternative closures, go to Sean Sullivan's Washington Wine Report (wawinereport.com) for the articles of April 19 and May 6, 2010