On Fri, 06 Oct 2006 21:39:36 +0200, Michael Pronay >
wrote:

>"Ric" > wrote:
>
>> Found this article on one of my newsfeeds (taken from
>> "wineloverspage.com") - thought many of you might also find it
>> interesting. I'm rather intrigued at the remark attributed to
>> the Portugese cork makers - that the term 'corked' is misleading
>> --- maybe we should be saying 'tainted' instead?
>>
>> [...]
>
>No we shouldn't.
>
>That's very typical cork producers marketing speak fighting
>against losing market shares to alternative closures.
>
>I happen to live in a country (Austria) where alternative closures
>haveen an immense uproar, making it the no four country in the
>world after NZ, AU, and CH.
>
>We do taste professionally between 2,000 and 3,000 wines a year.
>At the slightest suspect of taint we do immediately open a second
>bottle and taste it alongside the first. With bark corks, we have
>between 10 and 30 percent cork taints, i.e. that the backup-bottle
>confirms the problem of the first by showing better (or, rarely,
>by being worse).
>
>Although the share of screw-capped and glass-stoppered wine is
>much lower than 10 percent, I have yet to come across a wine where
>there is a difference between the suspect and the back-up bottle.
>In fact we had only one glass-stoppered wine with a problem
>similar to TCA, and none under screw-cap, althouh we had bad wines
>under both closures.
>
>M.

While I agree that the Portugese cork industry has a dog in this hunt,
I think your final paragraph actually supports their position. Bad
corks, poorly handled corks, poor production sanitation, etc. are
probably the leading cause of corked wines. But if the Portugese cork
makers are implying that with good corks well handled (i.e. their
product) the cause might lie elsewhere they might have a case.

Bad storage, bad barrels, contamination in bottling or whatever would
be blamed for those incidents which you cite of screw-capped or
glass-stoppered wines which show as tainted and with the backup bottle
displaying the same fault.

Bottom line, and I'm in total agreement with you, is that far too many
bottles of wine (often at great expense) are damaged and the cause is
the cork more often than any other culprit in the sequence.

How long will it take though until I enjoy the ceremony at my dining
table of the waiter bringing the bottle, displaying the label, then
ceremoniously twisting off the Stelvin closure and proffering it for
my consideration before pouring a taste?

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com