Have had a bizarre string of corked bottles recently, with no obvious link— Marguet, Levet, Rossignol, Borgo del Tiglio, Bonneau to name a few—hitting more than a third of recent bottles. At least, I think it’s tca. Usually goes from good to mute to gross in the way I associate with mildlh corked wines. So much more frequent than I’m used to that I’m beginning to think it’s not just bad luck, but can’t think of anything that would be causing it… Any ideas/anyone heard of something similar?
Is it possible you have lost your sense of smell? Covid, as well as some pine nuts, can cause loss of taste or smell, as can some medications such as Zicam (zinc). If not, have another wino do a TCA check on bottles you think are corked.
Fluticasone nasal spray causes me to lose my sense of smell. Goes back to normal after a few days.
I agree with Chuck that it seems like something is going on other than with the wine. Do you drink with others (a partner, etc)? Do they also think the wines are bad?
Yes, and they agree as well. I’m not sure it’s out sense of smell because they start out smelling fine, and I haven’t noticed this with other foods etc, but could be wrong. Has been happening for a few weeks as well. Was wondering if there’s some kind of contaminant in my immediate environment…
(Specifically it always seems like their fruit is slowly occluded over time.)
Then it’s time to start thinking outside the bottle. Are your wine glasses and decanters well cleaned? Do you use any other devices such as a funnel, filter, Coravin, etc?
I’m beginning to think that it may be the dishwasher, since the problem seems to have started around when I stopped handwashing. Perhaps it’s something in the detergent pods? This at least gives me something to try out… What a costly experiment!
Good one, btw. Just caught that…
my dishwasher leaves a slight soapy film on my dishes, I always give my glasses one last rinse in the sink before putting them away. Perhaps your dishwasher is doing the same?
Have u checked the hardness of your water?
for what its worth, next time you find a tainted bottle, you should consider getting an independent mug/glass/whatever (e.g. potentially freshly purchased) to just even smell the wine out of. It’ll quickly tell you if there are systematic issues in, for example, how you wash the wine, or if its the actual bottle.
What are your cabinets made of? I find many wooden cabinets, due to stains/veneers/sealants etc. impart a smell to glasses. This problem is so pervasive for me and was so bad in my old kitchen that we built our new glassware cabinet out of steel and glass. Everything smells perfectly neutral now.
Be sure not to use any chlorine bleach in the vicinity.
I’ve historically used cascade in the box for washing both dishes and glasses. Since the stores had too many issues getting dishwasher detergent I had to buy a package of Cascade pods. They certainly have affected the wine glasses. I am pretty sure it is the fragrance added to the pod. I finally go a box or regular Cascade. The pods are easy, but I think they definitely leave a residue on the glasses.
In fact I recently started using the cascade platinum pods as well! I suppose it’s also not impossible some stray chlorine made its way into my glassware in these covid times–not sure how though.
All right, thanks everyone for the advice, I think I’ll switch to washing by hand for a while and see what happens…
If worried about your glasses and whether they’re contributing to the problem, try breathing into the glass ahead of time, then smell the glass. Assuming you don’t have offensively bad breath, you should smell either nothing or something relatively innocuous – like your breath. It’s a good way to uncover residual dish soap smell, I have found, as well as other smells you don’t want, like an offensive smell in the cabinet where you store your glasses. Seriously! I had that smell in one of my wine glass cupboards until I had it coated with shellac. The shellac smelled for a few days, but after that it was fine.
Other sources can be the towels you use to dry your glasses. If they are smelly from your laundry detergent, your glasses will smell like that.
I wash my glasses in a dishwasher with a slight amount of Cascade as a pre-rinse, to remove food, lipstick (not always successfully), and some dried-on wine dregs, with Finish as my rinse agent. Very few problems.
Just clean by hand, using clear liquid dish soap, like Ajax, hot water, and a lint-free drying cloth.
Just buy and dispose of your wine glasses with every use. Sure it’s expensive, but relieves you of the bothersome problem of washing the glasses.
I have noticed that if I have one corked bottle the probability of the next bottle being corked is higher. I attribute this to consciously or subconsciously paying more attention to indicators that it may be corked that I might normally overlook. My wife who is relatively tolerant of TCA has in the past been enjoying a bottle of wine and if I taste it and call it corked she will suddenly sense what she didn’t notice before and can’t drink it anymore. Generally when this happens it’s an immediate issue and doesn’t seem to impact wine opened a day or two later. However, I could see how a string of corked bottles over a period of a few days could completely recalibrate my tasting more permanently.
I doubt this is what you are experiencing but throwing it out there as food for thought.
The dishwasher itself might need cleaning. You might try a container of Dishwasher Magic.
Seventh Generation makes a dishwasher detergent that is free of fragrances, chlorine, etc.