Do you ever intentionally drink corked wine?

[Dale Williams]

On the cooking front, I don't normally cook with corked wine. But someone (I think Sue Courtney) posted a recipe a few years ago to make a wine sauce from corked wine. I think a vigorous boil to reduce by about half, with herbs (and maybe a touch of sugar?). Seemed to cook out the TCA.

[Steve Slatcher]

Bearing in mind that sensitivity to TCA varies so hugely, I wonder how many other aromas we have greatly varying sensitivities to. I am increasingly suspecting that we are actually smelling totally different things in wines.

[Craig Pinhey]

Gosh I haven't been reading the forum lately.

Anyway, sometimes I drink that I know is corked. In restaurants with a group (non Sommelier-winegeek-types) when I don't feel like being the "wine knob" who finds fault with every wine...

If no one else notices, I just drink it.

It won't hurt me, right?

[Dale Williams]

Bearing in mind that sensitivity to TCA varies so hugely, I wonder how many other aromas we have greatly varying sensitivities to. I am increasingly suspecting that we are actually smelling totally different things in wines.

I agree. Besides TCA, people seem to vary greatly in their responses to brett. Some hate it, some don't mind it, some don't know what you are talking about. It gets even more complicated as it seems some of us react differently to different strains.

Similarly, people can respond differently to "green" aromas. The 2000 Pichon Lalande has a (comparatively) large percentage of Petit Verdot. At a big tasting just after release, a friend polled the room. Out of about 50 people,almost all experienced Bordeaux drinkers, it was almost equally divided into 3 camps: those who felt there was a nasty green streak, those that got the greenness but perceived it as a pleasant (or neutral) herbal edge, and those who said "what green streak?"

Many other examples.

[Mark Lipton]

Bearing in mind that sensitivity to TCA varies so hugely, I wonder how many other aromas we have greatly varying sensitivities to. I am increasingly suspecting that we are actually smelling totally different things in wines.

I doubt that there is any smell that everyone is equally sensitive to. In wine, there is tremendous variation in sensitivity to Brett, sulfur, TCA, oxidation, volatile acidity, etc.

Mark Lipton

[Steve Slatcher]

I doubt that there is any smell that everyone is equally sensitive to. In wine, there is tremendous variation in sensitivity to Brett, sulfur, TCA, oxidation, volatile acidity, etc.

Indeed. But are we not a lot more willing to accept these variations in perception of (and/or tolerance to) "faults"? As opposed to fruit aromas, bouquet, and other stuff that is more universally accepted as good I mean. But if you listen to peoples comments at tastings, or compare written tasting notes, you will see little commonality unless there are one or two dominant characteristics.

[Tom V]

Depending on the wine, sometimes I find slightly corked wine funky but palatable with food. I am especially likely to drink it if I have brought it along to a BYOB restaurant, which I frequently do, and 'am too lazy to go running off to find a liquor store for a replacement! Tom

[Mark Noah]

Come on....... Why would you drink a corked wine? If you know it's corked, you're not getting what the wine is supposed to give. It simply does not matter that certain people are less or more tolerant to TCA. If you know the wine is corked, there is no reason to drink it.

I know its annoying, frustrating, pain in the ass, etc., etc. You spend x amount of dollars on a wine and its corked. It'll really piss you off when you hit 2 or 3 in a row. But let's be real; If the wine is corked, it is not the wine you wanted or the wine the producer wanted you to have.

Don't get me wrong. I've tasted over and over again wines that were extremely costly that were corked just to see if I could taste what is under the cork taint. Sometimes I can, sometimes not. I'm sure I'll do it again. But really, just get rid of the bottle and drink something that tastes like it is supposed to.

mark

[Mark Lipton]

I doubt that there is any smell that everyone is equally sensitive to. In wine, there is tremendous variation in sensitivity to Brett, sulfur, TCA, oxidation, volatile acidity, etc.

Indeed. But are we not a lot more willing to accept these variations in perception of (and/or tolerance to) "faults"? As opposed to fruit aromas, bouquet, and other stuff that is more universally accepted as good I mean. But if you listen to peoples comments at tastings, or compare written tasting notes, you will see little commonality unless there are one or two dominant characteristics.

Absolutely, and the reason that I rarely give much heed to the desciptors used in tasting notes, even my own What we now know about olfaction is that it employs a neural network of olfactory receptors, each fairly broad in its response and our brain integrates the constellation of input to produce the organoleptic response. So, even a modest change in one or more receptors will change the input and possibly the interpretaion of the gestalt. So, the same collection of molecules might mean "rose" to someone and "lemon" to another -- and both would be "correct."

Mark Lipton

[Victorwine]

Thanks Mark L for taking the time to post that nicely written description of the olfactory system and thanks Steve S for leading the discussion into that direction.

Salute

[Paul B.]

Bruce, I have done this - once, more than anything, out of necessity: we were doing pork ribs over an old oil drum up north, and I had just brought a bottle of low-end Australian Shiraz. Well doggone it, I opened the bottle and phew - TCA!! But it was late Sunday and all the stores were closed. I swirled the wine vigorously and did get some Shiraz character still, so yes, we did drink it, wet cardboard and all.

Normally, though, when I encounter that Clorox stink, that bottle's going back for a refund!