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Understanding Corked Wine

A well-made wine will stay good for a very long time! However, sometimes you might encounter a wine that smells and tastes bad. This is known as a "corked" wine. The unpleasant smell and taste of a corked wine come merely from the cork. It's easy to detect a corked wine by its musty smell, reminiscent of wet cardboard, mushrooms, or damp earth.

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The Cause of Corked Wine

A defective cork has nothing to do with the quality nor the price of a wine. Cork is a porous tree bark and is therefore likely to allow air to infiltrate between its fibers. When air sneaks in and crosses to the other side of the cork, it inevitably causes interaction with the wine, leading to changes in taste and color, and with the cork itself, giving it an unpleasant scent.