Cork rot, also known as “cork taint,” is the foul-tasting, foul-smelling condition of a bottle of wine gone bad. It is, indirectly, the cause of some snobby behavior in restaurants.
We have all observed someone making a huge ritual of sampling a newly-opened bottle of wine. The implication is: “My highly- trained senses can distinguish between the excellent and the merely good.”
In fact, the ritual has a simple purpose. Some fairly high percentage of wine bottles suffer from cork rot. Cork rot dismays the winemakers, the restaurateurs, and the drinkers. If a bottle has cork rot, pretty much anyone — anyone — who tastes the wine will know something is wrong.
Project Cork Rot aims to educate the snobs, or at least amuse everyone else. If you see someone at the table next to you making a snobbo ritual out of a simple good/bad test, clear your throat. Then say, in the friendliest way possible: “Ah, you are testing for cork rot! Is that bottle okay?”
Project Cork Rot was introduced in mini-AIR 2007-03.
TECHNICAL NOTE: Yes, there are snooty cork rot devotees. Some lisp, in a stage whisper, “2,4,6-trichloroanisole” or “2,3,4,6- tetrachloroanisole.” Others carry with them — always — a copy of Silva Pereira, et al.’s “Cork Taint in Wine: Scientific Knowledge and Public Perception: A Critical Review” (Critical Reviews in Microbiology, vol. 26, no. 3, 2000, pp. 147-62). Ignore them.
FURTHER NOTE: Also see “Mousy Off-Flavor: A Review“.