Running list of CORKED wines

[jckba]

After thinking about this very topic extensively just the other day, I popped a 2005 Leoville Poyferre to go with my leftover filet and wouldn’t you know it; it was corked! So what I am proposing is that every time you encounter a corked btl of wine, you post it to this thread and then I will in turn update this opening post and list said occurrence of that producer. What I am interested in seeing is if amongst our community their is a higher incidence of corked btls for certain producers and it will take a combined effort to come up with a list from which we may or may not be able to draw conclusions. So it is written, so it shall be done!

Climens 1
Clos Fourtet 1 (2008)
Cos d’Estournel 1 (2002)
Ducru Beaucaillou 2 (1986, 1989)
Gloria 1 (2000)
Grand Puy Lacoste (2000)
Leoville Las Cases 1 (2000)
Leoville Poyferre 1 (2005)
Pichon Lalande 1 (1986)
Smith Haut Lafitte 1 (2004)
Sociando Mallet 2 (1989, 1995)

Antinori 1 (2006 Guado al Tasso)
Huet Vouvray 1 (pre-mox 2014 le Haut Lieu)
Il Poggione 1 (2004)
Jadot 2
Marquis d’Angerville Volnay 1 (1996 Clos des Ducs 1er)
Pierre Damoy 1 (1998 Chambertin Clos de Beze GC)
Sigalas (pre-mox 2016 Santorini Assyrtiko)
Tenuta San Guido 3 (2015 Le Difese)
Taylor Floodgate (1977)
Vilmart & Cie Coeur de Cuvee 1 (2006)

[stefan]

Jadot 2
Climens 1

[JimHow]

SHL

[Chateau Vin]

Good idea JC...

But just wondering, if bwers can attach the vintage info when available, JC can provide the range (lowest to highest) in his update, next to each producer to see which years of the producers are generally affected... Just a thought though...

[JimHow]

Agreed CV.
I recently had a corked 2004 SHL for sure.
a 2002 Cos may or may not have been corked.

[DavidG]

Needs a denominator.

[SF Ed]

This is impossible to scientifically model with this type of info. I have opened dozens of corked bottles. I have opened thousands of bottles. That means little.

Tasters have a wide tolerance of TCA. What one person finds horribly corked another finds OK. Lightly corked is an even bigger quandry. Lots of experienced tasters argue over whether a bottle is corked or not.

There are specific TCA infections that have harmed vintages of wine (like Ducru in the late 80s), but other than that results will be random. Corked wine that comes through TCA infected corks is not going to be wine specific, and without controlled experiments with many thousands of samples and consistent parameters for what corked means, won't find statistically significant variation.

SF Ed

[DavidG]

What Ed said.
Won’t be able to draw any conclusions from the postings.
But the thread will be a good place to blow off steam.

[hautbrionlover]

Pichon Lalande 1986
Grand Puy Lacoste 2000

[DavidG]

1977 Taylor Fladgate Port

[AKR]

I'll echo SFed.

I'm sure I've had tainted dessert wines, but if so, it must be much harder for me to detect.

[jckba]

So last night I decanted a 2008 Clos Fourtet to go with some burgers on the grill and when I emptied it out into the decanter it smelled a little musty but I was hoping it would blow off by dinner several hours later, well it was corked. So here is my update of corked btls I have encountered in the new year.

2008 Clos Fourtet
1989 Ducru Beaucaillou
1995 Sociando Mallet
1989 Sociando Mallet
2006 Antinori Guado al Tasso
1996 Marquis d’Angerville Volnay Clos des Ducs 1er
1998 Pierre Damoy Chambertin Clos de Beze GC
2006 Vilmart & Cie Coeur de Cuvee
2016 Sigalas Santorini Assyrtiko (pre-mox)
2014 Huet le Haut Lieu Vouvray (pre-mox)

[DavidG]

How many bottles have you opened in that time J-C?

I’ve had 2 corked bottles this year out of 55 opened, or 3.6%. One was a 2007 Santa Duc Gigondas, the other a NV Chambers Rosewood Muscadelle released in 1999. I wasn’t too disappointed with a 2007 southern Rhone going down the drain. Based on the underlying cough syrupy cloying sweetness of the Chambers, the TCA was a blessing.

Uncommon occurrences often seem streaky. I had no corked bottles from my cellar out of 192 opened in 2017 and 2018. So only 0.8% from January 2017 to now.

[Comte Flaneur]

I went to a dinner last night where we tasted mainly 2000 and 2003 Bordeaux blind.

We encountered two corked wines:

1986 Ducru (a ringer, wtf? again, though not one of mine this time)
2000 Gloria
And a 2000 LLC which just was not right and possibly corked as well.

[sdr]

In my experience, old Montrose has the highest rate of TCA spoilage. My unscientific recollection is that WAY over half of the bottles from ‘59, ‘61 ‘66 and ‘70 were corked. Most recently 2 weeks ago (‘61). Vintages since 1982 have been okay.

Stu

[jckba]

How many bottles have you opened in that time J-C?

Surprisingly, I don’t keep track of this as I just keep a running notepad with btls bought and/or consumed, + and - and update my inventory spreadsheet every so often. But if I had to venture a guess, I have probably opened somewhere btw 125 and 150 of my own btls thus far this year, but my list also included several corked btls which I came across at dinners that I could remember off the top and if we were to include all of those, then I would probably be upwards of 400 wines tasted as I do partake in a number of different monthly wine groups.

[DavidG]

Well, 10 out of 400, or 2.5%, is sort of the traditional rate from long ago. The cork industry supposedly has it much lower now. According to them, anyway.

[stefan]

I have opened at least 6 corked bottles this calendar year; probably more. I don't keep a record. I asked for and will get replacement for two of the three St. Innocent bottles (I did not report the third one as I have a large supply of the wine). I was surprised that this many SIs were corked as Mark pays a lot for corks and, IIRC, before this year I had opened only two corked SI. No corked bottles in Israel yet. That is very good as my supply here is so limited and hard to replace.

[Comte Flaneur]

La Difese 2015 from Tenuta San Guido/ Sassicaia, three out of six bottles corked, last one a week ago.

[Claret]

stefan, is there a vintage batch of bad SI corks? I do not think I have ever had any problems.

I have gone over a year w/o any corkers. Drinking more screw caps than ever and good fortune I suppose.

[JCNorthway]

A 2004 Il Poggione Brunello opened last week was corked. The second one was fine, and a very nice wine.

[stefan]

No, Glenn; three different vintages. The one that hurt most was 2008 Justice. Felice is trying to get me a replacement for that rather than just substitute a younger vintage that they still stock.

[jal]

2012 Niellon Chevalier Montrachet!
Luckily it was at a restaurant and we could return it. Unfortunately that was their last bottle and the replacement was meh.... a 2011 Phillipe Colin Chevalier

[felixp21]

was the d'Angerville Ducster 96 definitely corked?
it is such a crap wine, I would find it hard to tell a sound bottle from a corked bottle.
I still got 3-4 bottles from a case purchased at release, easily one of the worst Burgs I have ever encountered.

[Comte Flaneur]

A bottle of 2008 Ch D’Angludet just over a week ago was badly corked.

[AKR]

Sadly, a bottle of the 1998 Grand Corbin Despagne [St Emilion] seems to be corked. I had a glass and eventually decided it was off. Normally this is a lovely example of a mature right banker...but this one was tart, wanly fruited, and disappointing. In the last month or so, this is 2nd* bottle held from release (multi decade) that has been off, which sucks. I'm not overly sensitive to TCA either, perhaps if anything, more willing to put up with it.

As much as I hate to do this, this GCD went down the sink.

* I should clarify, other bottle was another producer.

[Jay Winton]

2013 La Rasina Brunello-horribly corked. First one out of a six pack.

[William P]

Leoville Poyferre 1 (2003)