The 2010 'world championship of wine', the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, has added further weight to evidence of a dramatic decline in cork-related wine faults.
Of almost 7000 bottles opened at the prestigious event only one per cent were identified as being affected by 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA). Staged in Palermo Sicily in April, the competition attracted wine samples from more than 50 countries and as in previous years event organisers conducted an analysis of wine faults.
Of the thousands of wines tasted the panel of about 270 international judges rejected 120 samples. From this batch 68 were identified as being affected by TCA, commonly referred to as cork taint.
This figure represented 1.03 per cent of wines opened and is consistent with findings from several recent wine events that have shown the incidence of cork related taint to be either at or less than one per cent. At last year's Concours Mondial de Bruxelles the wine faults assessment recorded TCA at just below one per cent, representing seven years of sustained decline in line with the anti-TCA measures steadily introduced by major cork producers during this period.
"While the TCA-taint controversy is progressively dying out, the cork stopper is more than ever quality wines' natural companion," said Thomas Costenoble, oenologist and director of the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles.
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