When many of us start learning to taste wine, it's commonly taught that a “corked” bottle is easily recognizable by a “wet cardboard” aroma. But not everyone can pick that up. There are a number of ways a wine can be flawed (heat damage, oxidation, bacterial problems) but corkiness is caused by trichloroanisole, or TCA, a compound that can live in the bark of cork trees (or form at other stages of cork and wine production). Perceptions of cork taint vary by degree—sometimes impossible to miss, other times so subtle that only someone very familiar with the wine can detect it. But it also varies widely by taster perception.
Senior editor Kristen Bieler explains how she developed her own internal aroma and taste markers for detecting TCA contamination, also known as “cork taint” or “corkiness” in wine. Learn how you can too!
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