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Uncorked or UnScrewed you can still be Screwed! Why are wines with screw caps showing up with "cork taint"? What is the current chance of a corked wine? I do not deny the problem of TCA, a.k.a cork taint produced either by mold or chlorine use in the winery. It is of great concern to me, but the real challenge has been identifying the problem and its source! Many surveys claim 10% of wines on the market tainted from bad corks. These surveys are really a measure of returned wine a customer was unhappy with as it was not the wine the customer was expecting. This can be due to faulted wine from poor winemaking, an earthy wine when the customer wanted fruit, a wine that was spoiled by microbes either in barrel or bottle, wine improperly stored, wine in bottle shock, and, yes, it could also be due to TCA from a bad cork or other source in the winery. These surveys that reflect a high percentage of returned wine did not test any of the wines for TCA to determine if that was the actual problem. The latest survey conducted by the Wine & Spirits Assoc. in Great Britain tested 14,000 bottles for TCA and only .07% had any trace. That's 1 in 1,400! TCA can occur in wines sealed with Screw Caps. It can occur in all wines that are barrel aged. Any wood byproduct is a sponge for TCA. It can even come from TCA infected cardboard fiber boxes that contained the empty glass in shipment from glass maker to winery and is higher in post consumer recycled cardboard. These fibers fall in the bottle are not washed out and contain enough TCA to spoil the wine. Only 2-8 parts per trillion is required to mar the wine. Some people are sensitive at 2ppt others at 8ppt. For example should a wine contain 6ppt, a person sensitive at 2ppt "can't stand the wine," while a person sensitive at 8ppt might think it's the best wine they had ever had! TCA can also be produced by using chlorine as a sterilizing agent within the winery particularly on food grade wine hoses. Chlorine when used for cleaning floors can release the TCA from the mold that produces it, this intern is sponged up by the barrel and passed on to the wine. Should any chlorine come in contact with the barrel directly it would have a much more direct effect on the wine from TCA released from mold. So there can be many sources for TCA other than corks. When last did you reject a single malt whiskey from cork taint? or a champagne? Both are as likely candidates when cork sealed. The lower incidence is due to the radically different production process of malt whiskey and champagne. Hinting at not a cork but a facility or production problem for wine. The problem can be defined as TCA in wine, but as the source can very likely be prior to bottling it can occur with any type of closure on the bottle, the solution is not simple or cheap, the answer comes from diligence and vigilance of the winemaker, weather it be cork selection or production process within the winery. But let's not loose sight of the fact that the current chance of buying a bottle of wine actually effected by TCA is 1 bottle in 1,400 bottles. Be sure to learn about...