Corrected wine: That is the reason

If a wine corks, the cork is not necessarily the reason. Wine with a screw cap can also taste corky.

Wine corked - the reason for this is not always the cork

If a wine corks, the cork does not have to be responsible for it. However, this phenomenon occurs somewhat more frequently in bottles with natural cork.

• Trichloranisole, TCA for short, is responsible for corking the wine.
• Corks are usually made from the bark of the cork oak. If this is treated with certain crop protection agents, TCA is created as a breakdown product. For example, when molds on the bark that are not visible decompose the plant protection products.
• The resulting musty, moldy smell passes from the cork to the wine.
• However, wine can also be corked, which is closed with a screw cap or plastic cork.
• Microorganisms can also decompose chlorine-containing cleaning agents, which also creates TCA. This then gets into the wine via wooden pallets, but also via barrels and hoses and makes it corky.
• You can already recognize a corky wine when you open the bottle. The wine smells musty and putrid and unfortunately tastes like it.
• How pronounced this is depends on the alcohol and sugar content of the wine. The smell is significantly enhanced if you dilute the wine with mineral water.
• Incidentally, corked wine is not harmful to health. The amounts of TCA contained are too low for this. Such a wine is certainly not a pleasure.