Are older wines more likely to be corked than younger wines?

[JimHow]

My corked wine percentage is much lower than many here, down in the 1-3% range.
Part of it I'm sure is due to my poor olfactory senses. (More often I can tell a wine is corked from my taste senses.)
Is the fact that I drink my wines younger a factor?

[stefan]

Sure; the heavy fruit in a young wine can make it harder to detect TCA. Another possible factor is that the wine has had less time to contact the cork.

[Claret]

I think the cork biz has cleaned up their act in the past decade. I am highly sensitive to TCA and only open about 1 corked bottle per year lately. Drinking a lot of screw caps and more widespread use of DIAM corks helps.

[jckba]

To me it would seem that if a wine is defective due to the cork, then the problem took place at the time of bottling and will be apparent whenever one chooses to open said ‘flawed’ bottle.

Having problems picking up on a flawed bottle is another problem entirely as different people have different sensitivities to TCA and/or are even aware of its meaning or existinence.

[DavidG]

I agree with Glenn and JC. A corked wine is corked from the get-go and will have its effect on the wine regardless of age, though how obvious that effect might be could vary. And the industry seems to have significantly reduced the percentage of corked bottles.

[JimHow]

So we have two answers here, Yes age makes a difference, No it doesn't, a wine is either corked or not.
If it is the latter, what difference does it make that Ducrus cellar was unclean in the late 80s?
Is the dye cast when the bottle comes around randomly under the corking machine?

[JimHow]

If a wine is "corked," how can it "blow off?"
I mean if a wine is "a little bit corked," isn't that like being "a little bit pregnant?"

[Claret]

TCA does not blow off. The Saran Wrap trick can reduce the level some.

[JimHow]

So a wine can be corked, but not so corked if some plastic wrap is put over it.
Will the Seran method work more with a younger wine or an older wine, or does it not matter the age of the wine when it comes to the Siran "cure?"

[Claret]

Need to insert the wrap into the liquid. TCA gets attached to the wrap IIRC. I do not think age matters, level of TCA does. It can work on lowish levels.

[stefan]

The wrap mutes desirable characteristics as well as the TCA, but it does make the wine drinkable. It takes time to work. If you have a bottle that cannot bring yourself to pour down the drain and want to drink right away, eat some roasted peppers while drinking. That helps.

[dstgolf]

Like above cork taint starts in the cork and is there from the start. I believe the longer contact with the tainted cork then the more noticeable it becomes. The fading fruit with age is accentuated by cork taint but the lack of fruit with age also makes the taint more noticeable.

Its always amazing to me ones individual sensitivity to cork taint is a broad spectrum and unrelated to an individuals experience. Some are just more tolerant and don't notice the taint while others are very sensitive. I must say I'm closer to the sensitive side but no where near as sensitive as my wife.

Siran wrap certainly lessens the amount of noticeable corkiness and yes it has to be crumpled and immersed in the wine. The only problem is it also sucks any life from the background wine right out of the bottle and leaves a lifeless ghost of what it should be. I've tried it a couple of times and found the end product so undesirable that the were poured down the drain. Maybe if there were wine unsavy souls around the table you could pass it off to the uninitiated but you won't be fooling anyone with any sense of a palate unless they are beyond the state of being able to taste anything after two or three bottles....

[Tom In DC]

So we have two answers here, Yes age makes a difference, No it doesn't, a wine is either corked or not.
If it is the latter, what difference does it make that Ducrus cellar was unclean in the late 80s?
Is the dye cast when the bottle comes around randomly under the corking machine?

I think both answers are true but only because the "age makes a difference" part of the answer is "relative to this point in time." Like Glenn said above, cork manufacture and treatment prior to use has gotten better over the last decade or so, so a younger wine is less likely to have gotten a corked stopper.

But if the cork is affected, the wine is affected, regardless of age.

[JimHow]

So it doesn’t sound like a wine can “become corked” if the cork was not tainted in the first place.
Can a wine “become corked” if it is stored in a dirty cellar?
Again, I refer to the supposed cellar problems at Ducru in the 80s, Montelena in the 90s, etc., etc.

[Tom In DC]

Those wines didn't become corked after bottling - the Brett and/or TCA in the cellar ended up in the wine before the cork went into the neck.

[JimHow]

So... If a wine bottle is produced, barreled, corked in a pristine cellar, but then, once bottled, it is moved to a filthy, contaminated cellar, the wine itself should be okay?

[Tom In DC]

As long a the closure is sound, I would think so.

[Ognik]

Yes.