Wine fault
Cork taint (TCA)
The classic "corked" wine: musty, damp-cardboard aromas that strip a wine of its fruit. Harmless to drink, but the bottle is spoiled.
What you notice
Smell
- Smells like wet cardboard, damp newspaper or a musty cellar
- Smells like a wet dog or a damp basement
- The wine smells of very little — the fruit seems stripped out — also seen in Oxidation, Heat damage
Taste
- Tastes flat and short, finishing abruptly — also seen in Oxidation
What it is
"Corked" does not mean bits of cork floating in the glass, and it has nothing to do with a cork that crumbled. It refers specifically to contamination by TCA and related compounds.
Human sensitivity to TCA is extraordinarily acute — detectable in the low nanograms per litre, which is parts per trillion — and it varies substantially between people. One person at a table may find a bottle undrinkable while another notices nothing.
At low concentrations TCA does not smell musty at all; it simply suppresses fruit aroma, making the wine seem dull and short. A lot of "disappointing" bottles are mildly corked rather than badly made.
The rise of screwcaps and technical closures has substantially reduced the incidence, which is precisely why they were adopted.
What causes it
- TCA forms when naturally occurring fungi come into contact with chlorophenols, which can originate in chlorine-based cleaning products, treated timber or contaminated packaging.
- Most commonly transferred via a contaminated cork, but it can also come from barrels, pallets or the winery building itself — in which case it affects far more than one bottle.
Can I fix it?
No — nothing will fix it
No. TCA is chemically stable, and nothing available in a kitchen removes it.
What you can do
- Nothing will fix it. The compound cannot be removed by decanting, aerating or filtering.
- A widely repeated trick involves cling film, which does adsorb some TCA — but it also strips aroma compounds, so the wine that comes back is diminished rather than restored.
- Return it. Retailers and restaurants expect this and it is a normal part of the trade.
What does not work
Published because a reader holding a spoiled bottle has usually already been told to try one of these. Correcting the specific wrong advice is more use than stating the right answer beside it in silence.
- Decanting or “letting it breathe”
- TCA does not evaporate at any useful rate. An hour in a decanter leaves the musty note exactly where it was and loses whatever fruit the wine still had.
- Cling film
- This one genuinely does something — polyethylene adsorbs TCA — which is why it circulates. It also adsorbs the aroma compounds you were trying to rescue, so what comes back is a cleaner wine with less in it. Worth knowing about; not worth doing.
- Filtering, or a coffee filter
- TCA is dissolved, not suspended. A filter removes particles and this is not one.
- Chilling it hard
- Cold suppresses aroma across the board, so the taint is less obvious and so is everything else. That is hiding it, not fixing it.
Is it safe to drink?
Not a safety problem
Unpleasant, not harmful. You can drink it; you may not want to.
Yes. TCA is unpleasant, not harmful, and drinking a corked wine will not hurt you.
Can I take it back?
Yes, without hesitation. Cork taint is a recognised fault and any reputable retailer or restaurant will replace the bottle. You do not need to have left it unopened.
Sources
Sources consulted
- The Australian Wine Research Institute — AWRI
- Wine flavours, faults and taints — The Australian Wine Research Institute
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