Recently, I came across a magnum so badly corked that the TCA could be detected more than a foot away through the still sealed bottle. I wondered just how much it smelled and put it in a cabinet away from food or wine. When I returned a couple of hours later, the smell of TCA rolled out when I opened the cabinet. Since I had purchased the bottle directly from the winery, I contacted the winery. It made good on the bottle. As part of that discussion, the winery suggested I keep the tainted bottle and try soaking plastic wrap in it. Although this method has been generally discussed here before, I am curious as to some specifics like how much plastic wrap to use and how long to soak the wine in the wrap.

Since I have an entire magnum to play with, I put half the bottle in two decanters. I know that not all plastic wraps are equal. Some have the ingredients that interact with TCA and some don't, but I don't recall which ones do. In one, I put Saran Wrap, in the other, Kroger's knock off. I put a healthy sheet in both and put the decanters on the counter. (For all I know, Kroger's brand is made by Saran Wrap's manufacturer, but I thought I'd get an idea of whether either of these two brands work.) Neither package lists what goes into their respective products.

Now that the wines have soaked in plastic wrap over night, should I fish out the plastic wrap and insert fresh sheets in both? In other words, does the plastic wrap to which the TCA molecules attach act like a towel or mop that reaches a saturation point, or is it more like a neutralizer (like a bug zapper) that continuous neutralizes the TCA as long as it is in contact with the TCA?

How long should the soak continue? The winery suggested I soak it for 24 hours. Should that be sufficient or should the soak extend for some time longer or even another full day?

And, to help determine if the plastic wrap improves the wine at all, I took a couple ounces of the tainted wine and put in a glass as a control. Yes, "nasty" is its name.

Another question occurred to me as I was pouring the wine. Since the taint comes from contact with the cork, does the taint spread from the cork through the wine like a leach field (thinking of how hazardous material leach through soils)? If so, wouldn't that mean that part of the wine in a container might not be affected? How does the taint move and spread through the wine?

I don't know the answers to any of your questions. I tried it, it didn't work for me.
Pour the wine down the drain and get on with your life!

I believe Saran Premium Wrap is the one to try (or any other polyethylene formulation). It absorbs the TCA molecules out of the wine. So, surface area counts. For a badly corked wine, probably need to use lots of wrap. I doubt the process continues much after an hour or two if you swirl the decanter to help more of the wine come in contact. It would be better to repeat the process than to wait longer.

In my experience, it greatly decreases the TCA, but the wine is still not interesting. I suspect it's stripping more than just the TCA.

-Al

...of the "Life's too short to drink bad wine" school of philosophy. But I cannot help myself. I'm of the school that says, "I gots to know."

Thanks, Al. So, the plastic wrap works more like a mop or towel absorbing the TCA, correct?

Beb, A few people in my wine group do this with corked wines they want to try anyway. IMO, the wines a are poor imitation of an untainted bottle. If you're inclined to do it, try adding some tartaric acid as well to brighten the flavor thats left. I'm certain that premium saran wrap takes out more than TCA, try it on a glass of untainted wine to see its effect.

Agreed, John. TCA not only adds the corked aroma/flavor, but it also strips the fruit from a wine, so even if you can remove the nastiness, you're still left with something less than it should be.

Hmm, this is what we've all been taught to believe. But do we actually know this to be true, or just another bit of conventional wisdom that has no basis in fact? If it is indeed true, than virtually any wine we open that doesn't show detectable TCA aroma could be sub-par due to low level taint. It's a little like the old conundrum: would you rather find half a worm in your apple, or no worm at all?

I'm generally persuaded to accept the conventional wisdom, but there are so many other falls CWs out there, I do have to wonder a bit...

More or less, the TCA sticks to the surface of the wrap. More correctly, it is adsorbed rather than absorbed (I used the wrong word earlier).

-Al

It's definitely true. If you have a corked wine, even one that's just slightly corked, open another bottle of the same thing and see for yourself.

Using Al's comments that the TCA is absorbed, uh, rather, adsorbed, (thanks for the trip back to high school, Al) resulting in decreased efficiency by the sheet of plastic wrap, I fished out the sheets from the two decanters and inserted fresh ones the next morning, leaving the decanters to sit on the counter for several more hours.

The Saran Wrap coincidentally did turn out to be the "premium" type of this brand. Both decanters are the same size and roughly the same shape. One difference between them is that one has a stopper and the other doesn't. Could volatiles play a role here? (Calling TomHill....)

Pouring samples of this red wine from both decanters into glasses, I tasted from the control sample poured the day before, and both of the decanters. As mentioned before, the control sample was undrinkable. Interestingly, while both decanters were markedly improved over the control, samples from the decanters did not taste the same. But then, I knew which plastic film had been in which decanter. I needed to eliminate my possible sub-conscience bias. So I brought in an expert, the Spousal Unit who hadn't been following any of this other than with a mild amusement. As I suspected, she detected a distinct difference between the two decanters' wine. The wine using the Saran Wrap tasted better than the control, but more stripped of fruit with a finish like dishwater. The sample using the Kroger brand plastic film tasted the best. More fruit, no off-putting finish; it was "drinkable." We wondered if the context was different and we didn't know the wine had been tainted and was set before us with a slice of pizza if we would know of its problem. (The thought was that in the context of pizza and "some wine," a low expectation for the wine might be conjured up.) As I sipped the wine, I realized I was absent-mindedly spitting it out. While I had ingested some, at some point I started spitting. Obviously, I wasn't enjoying it. We looked at each other with the look of "why we were doing this to ourselves" and then I said, "I'll go get a better bottle." I dumped the contents of both decanters.

Conclusion: If you want to try to clean a TCA tainted wine, Kroger brand plastic film may provide more satisfactory results than Saran Wrap Premium, but in the end if you're a purist, you'll know what you're drinking and will pull something else.

Put the bottle on the kitchen floor. Insert several sheets of saran, etal. Arrange candles around the bottle in a circle that has the bottle in the center of a 5 foot diameter circle. This is key, is your kitchen big enough? Move the table if you have to.

Now get a pillow and sit on it next to the circle. Have someone dim the lights and be sure to light the candles.

Now begin chanting: Hoooommmmmeeee...manay potmay hmmmmmm
Hooooooommmmmmmeeee.....manay potmay hmmmmmmmmm

Or you could just throw it down the drain. Color me as part of JTO's Camp.