For The Love Of Port

Have you ever had a bottle of tawny that was corked or had TCA?

I assume you mean one that is sealed with a "T" cork? Regardless, yes I have with both a "T" cork and a regular driven cork.

How would I know?

Andy Velebil wrote:I assume you mean one that is sealed with a "T" cork? Regardless, yes I have with both a "T" cork and a regular driven cork.

Yes, with a T cork.

Years ago I had one (a Warre's Nimrod) that was so slightly corked that it really needed a good bottle side-by-side to be sure of it. Needless to say, I drank it anyway, although Eva preferred the tawny from the "good" bottle. Compared to other ports, and indeed to other wines, it seems to be fairly rare. In my experience, only one among the 278 bottle of tawny (at least that is how many I have recorded on cellar tracker; I'm sure I have drunk more than that) had any indication of TCA.

In other ports it may be closer to one in 20; in other wines, maybe one in 30 or 40.

TCA is a chemical contaminant produced from chlorine and organic compounds. It can make its way into any wine, and even beer. But given that most tawnies aren't stored as long, Peter's empirical numbers make some sense to me. The more contact time you have with a cork, the greater chance of the wine reaching the contaminant, and more of it.

Glenn E. wrote:How would I know?

Very funny...

Eric Menchen wrote:TCA is a chemical contaminant produced from chlorine and organic compounds. It can make its way into any wine, and even beer. But given that most tawnies aren't stored as long, Peter's empirical numbers make some sense to me. The more contact time you have with a cork, the greater chance of the wine reaching the contaminant, and more of it.

Also, if I recall, at least some T stoppers are made of agglomerate cork, or something highly processed like it. That's where you've got all the cork bits smushed together to form with some glue to make a new cork. In Champagne they're very popular, as sparkling sized corks are expensive. I know some wineries back in the finger lakes began using agglomerate corks because apparently the glue cuts down on/prevents TCA. Perhaps the processing to make T stoppers has a similar effect? Maybe the use the same glue?

I can remember only a single corked bottle - either Dow's or Graham's, about 7 years ago. As far as I can recall, this was a 10yo tawny.

It was sourced from a local liquor store, and I did return it.