How to Remove the Corkiness of Wine

The corkiness that afflicts wine is caused by many factors, such as the oak barrels in the winemaking process, the oak plugs infected by chemicals Trichloroanisole (TCA) during production and transportation, and the storage of dirty (contaminated by TCA) wines. Environment and so on. These factors are directly related to the oak more or less. When these factors are in direct contact with wine, TCA is very likely to infect the wine, and some wines will produce a nauseous taste of cork.

How to distinguish the smell of wood?

The cork smell comes from a chemical called TCA that contaminates the wine. If the wine smells like a musty newspaper, the smell of sweat in the animal, the damp clothing or the moldy smell in the basement, 80% of this wine has been infected with TCA. In fact, it is not difficult to distinguish these tastes. The human sense of smell is sensitive, even if one trillionth of TCA is captured by human olfactory organs. And 1 gram of TCA can completely destroy all the wine produced in the United States. Of course, it is difficult for some people who are slow to smell to recognize the slight corkiness in wine. Wines with a slightly corked taste can be reluctantly accepted, and wines strongly contaminated with cork can not be drunk, even if they are harmless, because these unclean, turbid odors affect the aroma of the wine itself. Wine lost its due quality.

What is TCA?

The air we live in floats a lot of micro-organisms. In a humid environment, they convert chlorophenols to chloroanisole. This is what we call TCA. It is often used to make pesticides or preservatives. We all know that oak plugs are made from the bark of oak. In order to ensure that the oak is not infested by pests and diseases during planting, such pesticides or preservatives containing TCA are often used. These are occasional traces. Residual TCA buried the root cause of the smell of wine in the future.

What should you do in the face of wood jam?

What should we do if we unfortunately come across a corked wine? In fact, the easiest way is to change a bottle. In foreign countries, the cork flavor will be used as a defect in wine production and it is acceptable to exchange. However, in the poor wine culture in China, many businesses do not understand the smell of cork, and most of them believe that customers are unreasonably troubled because they do not like the taste of certain wines and propose strange exchanges. Therefore, there is a certain degree of difficulty in changing them.

There is still a slight trick to eliminating the smell of cork. The corked wine is poured into a container wrapped in polyethylene (plastic wrap) and soaked for a few minutes, TCA will be adsorbed by the polyethylene, and the wine will immediately eliminate the cork. To do this, of course, will affect the overall flavor of the wine more or less. If you are really scared of wine that has a cork-like taste, buy a screw-capped wine, and you'll be perfectly safe.