Photo by Mauro Lima on Unsplash
Opening a bottle of wine and then drinking its contents should be an enjoyable experience. But if instead of inviting fruity aromas wafting out of the bottle you're met with a disgusting smell of wet woollen blanket or damp dog then the wine is not fit to drink and is said to be 'corked'.
A bacterial infection called TCA (trichloroanisole) has passed from an improperly sterilised cork into the wine. The wine industry admits that between one and twelve bottles in a hundred suffer from this complaint. Only a traditional cork made from tree bark can lead to TCA taint, if your bottle has a plastic cork or a screw cap then the wine may still taste horrible but it won't be because of TCA. Wine stored in too warm a place will lose its fruit flavours and turn cardboardy.
If the wine in your glass smells foul then don't pour it away, put it back into the bottle and return it to the shop where you bought it. Supermarkets and wine chains are usually more than happy to offer a refund or a replacement for a less than perfect bottle of wine.
