My wife’s rule on ‘what wine to pair with…’ is DRINK WHATEVER YOU WANT!
I haven’t personally had a wine I liked out of a box or bag or can.
Me neither. Too many good wines for $10.00 I would rather drink than a boxed wine.
This is something I’ve wondered before. I’m not very sensitive to TCA, but there have been wines where I’ve really wondered if they were corked, knowing that I’m not super sensitive to TCA, because of a wine feeling surprisingly muted on the nose (even after decanting/swirling) or otherwise not as expected.
My personal and anecdotal experience is that corked bottles can be corky smelling (ranging from slight to overwhelming), they can be masking/muted, but the extent of the two effects seems mostly independent of the other.
For example, I have tasted wines that had a clear corky smell, but where there were still a lot of flavors to the wine too. I have also tasted wines with barely perceptable corky smell (that may have only become noticeable to me after the wine had been open awhile), but where the wine was heavily muted. Sometimes, in the latter case, I never get a clear read on signature corky aromas, but then I open another bottle of the same wine and it’s obvious the first one was deadened by TCA.
Never happened to me with a wine under screwcap, though – keep fighting the good fight, Larry.
This is my experience also. But when I do perceive even a little cork taint, I have no interest in trying to go beyond it to find redeeming value. Life is too short to drink flawed wine.