Comments on: Fix corked wine

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:03:36 +0000

The adding of clingfilm can have a positive effect on corked wine.
Have tried it with some success. It may reduce the corkiness but its still exhibits the loss of fruit flavour. It will not bring back lost fruit flavour only unmask what is left. It also depends on the level of taint. If the taint is light it can be effective. But all this is still balanced against differing personal sensitivities of the oldfactory sensory bulb. Some people have little sensitivity to TCA and can unwittingly consume corked wine. Pity.
Ralph Gray

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 19 May 2007 03:18:43 +0000

We tried this on a tainted wine that we had opened. After an hour it had improved. We left the remainder over night. There was an improvement, so i guess time is a factor. It was a fun experiment to try!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 17 May 2007 07:27:08 +0000

Nice work Ed… I love a dash of science in my wine… Although really… who is that desperate to drink corked wine aside from alcos, nerd, and students ?

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:52:01 +0000

Cheers cam,
There were some pretty spiffy noses there and it seemed to work but I think thetaint was quite mild.
KH
We got onto this too and there are some wine makers who seem to be able to source cork that dosn’t seem to have the problem. they say it affects about one in ten wines. Apparently it occurs in 2-3 per cent of wines with screw caps mainly because of the absense of cork. I’m no expert but there are some good articles here:
http://www.wineanorak.com/controv.htm

By: kitchen hand

kitchen hand — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:32:21 +0000

Now you’ve got me thinking.

Is the lower incidence of corked wine in non-cork-stopped bottles due to the mere absence of unreliable (i.e. slightly porous) cork; or an actual positive effect of the plastic under the closure (either ‘fake’ cork or the new closures)?

By: Cam Wheeler

Cam Wheeler — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:16:21 +0000

Tried this process at a dinner on a wine that was badly tainted (that the host had carried back from France to save for a special occasion). Some wine was left in the bottle and the rest went into a decanter with the glad wrap.

After some time the host went into another room, poured two glasses and served them blind. All 10 people at the table thought the gladwrap treated wine smelled worse! Makes sense I guess since the decanted/treated sample had more air exposure, but both were still undrinkable.

Will probably give it another go at some point, but it certainly didn’t help on this first attempt.