What is Corked Wine?

What Does "Corked Wine" Mean?
Corked wine doesn't necessarily have visible cork particles or taste straightforwardly of cork. The term refers to wine contaminated with cork taint, which occurs when wine is bottled with a cork infected by TCA, a chemical compound. TCA forms when fungi naturally present in cork interact with certain cleaning products.

How Wine Gets Corked?
TCA, or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, arises when fungi in natural cork encounter specific chlorides present in bleaches and winery sanitation products. When wineries use infected corks, the wine becomes tainted. If left unchecked, TCA can infect an entire cellar or winery and is challenging to eliminate. Since its discovery in the early 1990s, most wineries have ceased using chlorine-based clearing products.

The Taste of Corked Wine
While unpleasant, cork taint poses no harm to humans. Corked wines have aromas and flavors reminiscent of damp, musty, or rotten cardboard. It diminishes the wine's fruitiness, making it lackluster and cutting short its finish. The intensity of the corked smell and taste varies depending on the extent of taint and the sensitivity of the drinker. Some may barely notice it, while others detect it immediately upon opening the bottle. For instance, in our household, although I am the wine professional, my husband can often detect corked wine before the cork is even pulled, regardless of the taint's severity.