(WineFolly) - Corked wine is so off-putting that some people will swear off wine after their first bad experience.

Cork taint isn’t easily identified which can make it hard to differentiate bad wine from wine that’s gone bad… Below we’ll cover: How often is wine corked? What causes it? What can we do about it?

A typical wine consumer will encounter ~100 corked bottles in their lifetime.

About 2-3% of wine is corked. Outrageous.

Wine Cork Taint

Known in the business as TCA and to chemists as 2, 4, 6, Trichloroanisole, cork taint effects about 2-3% of bottled wines (or about a bottle in every 2 cases). This number sounds low, but if you drink wine regularly, you’ll encounter a corked bottle about 100 times in your adult life which, believe me, starts to really suck.

You can return corked wines, but not always. On one occasion, I traveled to Los Angeles with a fancy bottle of Amarone della Valpolicella. I’d assured my friends that the wine ‘would change their life’. I wasn’t exactly wrong, because they had never sniffed a corked wine. Still, throwing money out a window would have been more gratifying. (proof)

Is corked wine safe to drink?

Yes. Cork taint isn’t bad for you; it just really dampens the mood.

What does a Corked Wine Smell Like?

Profile of a corked wine with high levels of TCA:

• Musty
• Wet Dog
• Wet Cardboard
• Wet Newspaper
• Grandma’s Basement
• Revisit Dank Smells

Take a washcloth, make it wet and wipe your armpits. Wring it out, but don’t completely dry it. Put it in a plastic container with a lid and leave it overnight. Congratulations! In the morning you’ll have a musty towel to smell.

By the way, when a wine has low levels of TCA it might not stink of the aforementioned aromas. Instead, it will just have no fruit and floral smells and very little flavor. You might think the wine was just boring. Review the checklist below to confirm TCA as the culprit:

Cork Taint (TCA) Checklist

1. The wine has a real cork. (alternatives to corks)
2. Does the wine have accolades and reviews that don’t line up with what’s in your glass?
3. Is your palate acting up again? (drink some water, smell your forearm and re-sniff)
4. Does your drinking buddy think it’s corked too?

Learning how to identify the corked flavor in wine takes a little practice.