Wine Tip of the Week - Give the Wine Another Chance

Ever open a bottle of wine with great anticipation and give it a good sniff to find... wet cardboard, musty wood, grandma's basement?  Welcome to cork taint - a syndrome is caused by a chemical substance called trichloroanisole, referred to as TCA.  It is most commonly introduced to a wine through a cork tainted with TCA, but other steps in the winemaking process can also introduce TCA.

A certain percentage of bottles (I have read as many as one bottle per case) may be impacted to some degree - but the amount of TCA may be low enough as not to be perceptible. Nothing to fear, other that making the wine smell bad, TCA presents no danger to consume. The most recent "corked" bottle I encountered was an everyday Spanish Rioja that we drink all the time, and have for years in the US and in Spain. I have never had any issues with a bottle of this wine, and suddenly one night - pure wet cardboard.

If you are trying a wine for the first time and are disappointed by musty aromas - it may be cork taint, and a different bottle may be wonderful...give that wine another chance!