abstract:Cork taint is a broad term referring to a wine fault characterized by a set of undesirable smells or tastes found in a bottle of wine, especially spoilage that can only be detected after bottling, aging and opening. Though modern studies have shown that other factors can also be responsible for taint – including wooden barrels, storage conditions and the transport of corks and wine – the cork stopper is normally considered to be responsible, and a wine found to be tainted on opening is said to be "corked" or "corky".
Had his influence not been so vast, people might never have known the meaning of cork taint an off taste usually caused by contaminated cork that affects roughly one bottle in every two dozen.
The problem was first detected in the 1996 Burgundy vintage, when collectors, experts and journalists started to notice the prevalence of a number of faulty bottles that weren't just infected with corktaint.