Does cling wrap get rid of cork taint?

—J.B., HABERFIELD, NSW

This is one of those compelling myths that crops up from time to time, in the same category as magnetising wine to supposedly soften tannins.

It’s infuriating to open a treasured, long-cellared bottle only to find that it’s “corked”. The term is short for cork-tainted, the chief culprit being a chemical chlorine compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), although there are others.

TCA imparts an unpleasant, musty smell and taste. It can infect cork through a number of pathways. Cleaning chemicals and disinfectants, used in a winery or cork forest, are possible causes, but it’s not always the cork that carries the TCA: it can be in the staves of a barrel or the timber in a winery building. A single, tainted barrel can ruin an entire batch if its contents are carelessly blended.

I find that if a bottle of wine is so musty that it spoils my enjoyment of it, it’s too musty for cling wrap to fix.

The idea with cling wrap is that you dunk it in the wine; either pour the wine into a jug and let it soak with cling wrap for a while or (more difficult) shove some cling wrap into the bottle. However, I find that if a bottle of wine is so musty that it spoils my enjoyment of it, it’s too musty for cling wrap to fix.

It turns out my scepticism is justified. The Australian Wine Research Institute’s senior oenologist, Adrian Coulter, confirms that cling wrap doesn’t remove cork taint and published scientific work backs this up.

The big surprise is that polythene or polyethylene (PE), the world’s most manufactured plastic, does, in fact, remove cork taint from wine, but it must be 100 per cent pure, food-grade PE; cling wrap contains various polymers other than PE.

One hundred per cent pure, food-grade PE can only be procured from a manufacturer. Good luck with that, although it would be nice to have a piece in your handbag just in case you encounter a “corked” bottle of Chateau Margaux or Penfolds Grange on your travels.

In the meantime, the best insurance is to have a back-up bottle on hand. Or just buy screw-capped wines.

Got a drinks question for Huon Hooke? thefullbottle@goodweekend.com.au