Corked bottles really hurt

[JCNorthway]

I've had a bit of a bad run lately with corked bottles. Two weeks ago a basic white Burgundy was so badly corked, I could smell it as soon as the bottle was opened. Fortunately, it was young enough, I was able to get it replaced at my local wine shop. Then last week I opened a 1998 Grand Mayne to go with a beef rib roast dinner; it was not badly corked, but enough to mute what would have been a very good bottle. Then tonight I opened a 2000 Haut Bergey to go with dinner. It was obviously corked, forcing another trip to the cellar to pick something else. Typically I encounter a corked bottle once every month or two. But finding 3 corked bottles in three weeks seems a little much. Hopefully this means I will get a 6-month run with no bad bottles!

[dstgolf]

JC

You've hit the assumption close to my experiences. The corked bottles seem to come in unexplained runs where they seem to come weekly then I'm on a stretch where none in 4-6 months like I'm on now. Just bad luck but frustrating indeed. It's not bad when you're home and you can go to the cellar and grab something else. When you're out to a BYOB restaurant, visiting friends for dinner with a nice bottle or the worst when gathering with fellow BWE'Ers and you open a corked bottle with no backup. A huge industry problem that isn't being addressed for what it is. The wine is spoiled from the time it was bottled and it should always come with a money back guarantee in my opinion!!

[DavidG]

I took a 1977 Taylor Port to a dinner in Chicago last month that was badly corked. I'd been looking forward to opening it for many years. Very disappointing.

[Claret]

I took a 1977 Taylor Port to a dinner in Chicago last month that was badly corked. I'd been looking forward to opening it for many years. Very disappointing.

That hurts David.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

A 2006 Ch. La Tour de Mons was corked last night. I've had a couple of other corked bottles lately and appear to be on one of those corky runs you describe.

[stefan]

The probability that a bottle is corked is estimated to be .05. If you open a bottle a day in a given week, you thus have a 70% chance of not encountering a corked bottle, which means that you have only a 24% chance of not opening a corked bottle in February. I don't feel like computing the probability that you will go a year without having a corked bottle in three consecutive weeks (it is definitely less than .6 and almost certainly less than a 50-50 chance), but the probability that you will not have at least one in each of the next three weeks is around .973. Bet the bank on it!

[JCNorthway]

Nice to have a mathematician for things like this.

[AlohaArtakaHoundsong]

Seems weird there would be as much as a 5% specific defect rate in a finished product. Where are all the quality gurus in the industry? All the continuous improvement/six sigma types?

[stefan]

There is no loss to the producer for failures due to TCA, so they have no motivation to solve the problem.