Using Saran Wrap to Remove Cork Taint

[Rebel Rose]

Former wine forum guest Mel Knox is quoted in today's LA Times: Simple Solution for Cork Taint

Interesting. You mash up a square foot of plastic wrap, pour your wine over it, mash it down into the pitcher, swirl for FIVE minutes (my arm would get tired!) and voila! No more TCA, aka cork taint.

Polyethylene absorbs TCA like a sponge, says Brian Smith, president of Vinovation, a "wine fix-it shop" that is experimenting with different plastic-filled cartridge filters that can be thrown into cork-tainted barrels or tanks to absorb TCA.

Anyone want to try it?

[tim]

Hi,

I ahve only tasted "corked" wines three times in the past 15 years. I may have to wait a long time to try this cure.

My first "corked" wine was a 15 year old Lafite at a tasting of first growths. None of us knew why there was an aroma of barnyard compost. Most thought that the wine was getting better as it breathed - IT WAS NOT! The purchaser was convinced that it was improving to the end of the evening. We had 6 old first growths and nobody finished the Lafite.

I thought that Original Saran was not made of polyethylene. Do we use the cheap wrap or the original Saran????

Tim

[melkor]

Plastic wrap does reduce the effect TCA has on a corked wine but it also strips a lot of the fruit - if you start with a great wine that happens to be corked you'll end up with a mediocre wine that isn't obviously corked. It's a good way to make something undrinkable into something drinkable, but don't expect the wine to fully recover.

[JohnL]

If it sounds too good to be....

(caveat emptor)

[tim]

Hi,

The nice lady at SC Johnson in Racine tells me that both the original saran (Saran Premium) and the Saran Cling Wrap are made of polyethylene.

Tim

[Simon_S]

I ahve only tasted "corked" wines three times in the past 15 years.

←

You're lucky then. I get them from time to time, and at a recent string of wine tastings there was one corked bottle (out of 12 or so) at 3 tastings in a row. Until recently, I'd never had a corked bottle in a restaurant. Of course, I was in a restaurant telling people this fact and the next bottle we ordered was corked. Typical.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that this method will work, but I must give it a try next time.

Si

[tommy]

My first "corked" wine was a 15 year old Lafite at a tasting of first growths.  None of us knew why there was an aroma of barnyard compost.

my understanding is that the barnyard aroma is usually linked to brett, rather than the TCA of a corked wine.

brett can actually "blow off" (shake the piss out of an affected wine and you'll see). however, most people who know about these things (not me) say that it just kills the wine.

brett is much less common, but i'm curious when people claim they've had corked wines only a few times over many years. industry estimates vary, but they usually average about 5% of bottles having cork taint. from my own experience i usually hit about 5% (1 out of 20 bottles). thankfully there are more alternative closures these days, so it's much less in practice. i'm of the opinion that a lot more corked wine gets unknowingly consumed than people think.

[russ parsons]

i was with a winemaking family for dinner one night and they opened three bottles in a row of their pinot noir--all corked. made for some uncomfortable conversation.

[tim]

Plastic wrap does reduce the effect TCA has on a corked wine but it also strips a lot of the fruit - if you start with a great wine that happens to be corked you'll end up with a mediocre wine that isn't obviously corked.  It's a good way to make something undrinkable into something drinkable, but don't expect the wine to fully recover.

←

Dave,

If "it strips a lot of the fruit" could we use Saran to turn Mogen David into reasonable plonk?

Tim