Rate of corked wines

C

Claude Kolm

Claude Kolm
I have not kept any records, but my estimate is that of current releases, I'm encountering +/- 1% corked wines, down from 8-10% perhaps 10-12 years ago. (Note: the wines I'm commenting on are, in decreasing order of number, French, German, Italian, California; I do open a fair number of such wines.) I consider that a rather astonishing rate of decrease. Are others having the same experience?
 
I should add that I am reasonably (but not super) sensitive to corkiness and that since a large number of the bottles I open are new versions of wines that I know for a number of years, I am also very good at picking out wines that are not overtly corked but that simply are "not right" (the opening of the second bottle almost always proving me right -- I can think of only one recent counter-experience, a 2011 Rheingau where I was forced to conclude that there was a rot problem).
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Rate of corked winesI have not kept any records, but my estimate is that of current releases, I'm encountering +/- 1% corked wines, down from 8-10% perhaps 10-12 years ago. (Note: almost all wines I open are, in decreasing order of number, French, German, Italian, California; I do open a fair number of wines.) I consider that a rather astonishing rate of decrease. Are others having the same experience?
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Well I never experienced an average rate of 8-10% but I certainly had a much higher rate in the past than my experience of modern vintages which is what is being reported.

To support your experience the sort of decline you describe is paralleled by the testing of cork bales imported to the USA by two major laboratories [ETS & Scott] for the US Cork Quality Council whose members include the major cork producers. I haven't checked the latest figures but IIRC a key measure of TCA in parts/trillion had been reduced by 80% between 2001 and 2008 to well below 1 part per trillion - well below the detection threshold of all except the extraordinarily sensitive.

There are conflicting indications of the level at which most people would detect TCA but since human thresholds vary enormously it would logically follow that TCA would be experienced very much less in 2008 than in 2001 and the Cork Industry's efforts to eradicate cork taint through changed harvesting and production processes buttressed by certified quality management systems and state-of-the-art testing using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry have continued.

There are many threads in all the major wine forums reporting a similar experience of a major reduction in corked wine but in addition to the major TCA elimination programme undertaken [belatedly] by the Cork Industry in the face of the growth in alternative closures, these alternatives will also have contributed to a general perception of reduced TCA.
 
originally posted by nigel groundwater:

Well I never experienced an average rate of 8-10%
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Pascal Delbeck, at the time with Ch“teaux Ausone and Bel-Air in St-Emilion, told me in the mid-1990s that the cork companies gave instructions to test for a 5% corked rate. If you add to that that I am perhaps somewhat more sensitive than the average person (presumably what they tested for) and a further decline in standards/quality in the late 1990s, 8-10% at the time sounds reasonable to me.
 
Given this I wish all the alternative closures would go away, except for the bottles of all the crap the great unwashed drink.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by nigel groundwater:

Well I never experienced an average rate of 8-10%
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Pascal Delbeck, at the time with Ch“teaux Ausone and Bel-Air in St-Emilion, told me in the mid-1990s that the cork companies gave instructions to test for a 5% corked rate. If you add to that that I am perhaps somewhat more sensitive than the average person (presumably what they tested for) and a further decline in standards/quality in the late 1990s, 8-10% at the time sounds reasonable to me.
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Claude I wasn't doubting your experience but simply describing mine.

I know very few that experienced 8-10% but I do know some although they are all invariably experienced/expert wine drinkers [like you] aware of the issue and experienced with TCA, an important consideration in the recognition of TCA.

However there are some who insist they experienced a regular TCA experience of over double your number [some as high as 25%] and frankly that does seem unlikely.
Of course for many TCA is the default call for any wine that doesn't seem right - and, particularly, where the fault is slight there can be confusion between low level TCA, SLOs and Brett. I am not suggesting you do.
 
It is hard for me to imagine that the rate ever reached 8 - 10%. I'm even skeptical of the 4 - 5% that is typically quoted.

Of course, I can (should) mention that I am not susceptible to TCA but have on occasion suspected TCA for a few substandard bottles.

And I agree with whomever hereinabove said do away with alternative closures.

. . . . . Pete
 
It's a bit lower than 1% for me, although I only got up to 4/5% about a decade ago. I also get fewer offensively corked bottles, which I find interesting; i.e. both incidence and severity seem to have been reduced.
 
originally posted by Peter Creasey:

It is hard for me to imagine that the rate ever reached 8 - 10%. I'm even skeptical of the 4 - 5% that is typically quoted.

. . . . . Pete
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The rate soared in the late 1990s. If you didn't experience it, that just says something about your sensitivity to TCA (not that that's bad; it is what it is, and more power to you if you can enjoy a wine, as can a good friend of mine, that I can't get near) -- but I know many, many people who independently arrived at the same conclusion (dramatic increase in the late 1990s) that I did.
 
another way to look at it would be to track the percentage of corked wines from various customers. winemakers (vignerons) are a significant part of the (restaurant) customer base of my world and probably 2/3 to 3/4 (anecdotal guess) of corked wines returned are from said patrons.

also, i've had some experience recently with significantly more cork taint in older wines. . .i've wondered of it's because as the wine seeps further in to the cork the higher the likeihood of it reaching a region of tca that it not near the wine end of the cork. (

i've pulled corks that reek of tca but not from the wine end of the cork and the wine is sound. in these cases the penetration/saturation of the wine in to the cork is minimal.)
 
originally posted by .sasha:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
The rate soared in the late 1990s.
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in Germany for sure

but where else ?
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Um, France (maybe the worst overall) and Italy. Had problems with CA, too, but sample size was significantly lower than for other regions.
 
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