When does a wine have the 'cork' fault?

You have probably experienced or heard that a bottle had a 'cork'. And we do not mean a cork as a closure of the bottle, but a mistake in the bottle. That can be very dirty. You should not drink such a bottle but return it to the store or send it back if you are in a restaurant. Below we explain what 'cork' is and how you can recognize this mistake.

What is ‘cork’ in wine?

Cork means that the wine is contaminated with a fungus, the so-called 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole fungus (TCA). In most cases, this fungus was in the cork itself. But the fungus could also have been in a wine barrel, or in the bottle, before it was filled. That is why the chance of ‘cork’ in a bottle with a real cork is greater than in a bottle with a screw cap, but the latter can also have ‘cork’. This fungus has nothing to do with small pieces of cork that sometimes end up in the bottle when the bottle is opened. The latter may be annoying, but is not harmful to the quality of the wine.

How do you recognise ‘cork in wine’?

You can recognise TCA fungus in wine mainly by the smell. The wine has an unpleasant, musty smell of a wet newspaper, a cork (hence ‘cork’) or an unwashed dog. That nasty smell can be very strong. You don't even have to taste a wine with a lot of TCA mold, you can smell it right away. Unfortunately, it's not always that black and white. A wine can also have a 'little bit of cork'. In that case, it has a somewhat musty smell, there is little fruit in the taste and the aftertaste is a bit burning in the throat.

Can something be done about cork in wine?

There has been a story in the wine world for years that you can remove the mold from the wine by putting a plastic bag in it. The mold would then stick to the plastic. We have tried that once, but to be honest, it didn't give the result we had hoped for...