Absurdly simple wine questions...

[Brad Ballinger]

The first time I think I met a corked wine was at a restaurant--I ordered a nice california Cabernet. I tasted the wine and didn't notice anything but as I drank more I felt uncomfortable with the wine. It just seemed to lack the fruit flavors I had come to expect from a california cabernet. It really wasn't obviously (to me) unpleasant, rather it was dull and boring. I should have called the sommelier over but did not and sort of suffered through it.

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It is worth remembering that there are degrees of cork taint. You can get a wine which blows your head off with the musty smell, or you can get wines which just aren't quite right. I usually reckon that when I get to smell the wine I can say straight off yes or no but sometimes I'm not quite sure and if it is the last one then it is almost invariably corked.

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Two other common occurrences with corked wine: 1) it will get worse with exposure to air; it will not "blow off." If something displeasing, in fact, "blows off," it was probably a sulfur issue and not a corked wine issue. 2) When tasting the wine, it will be almost completely stripped of any fruit whatsoever.