Cork taint can be transmitted by new oak barrels, says research

The risk of wine suffering 'cork taint' from contaminated new oak barrels is severely under-estimated by coopers and wineries, according to new research.
barrel

Tests undertaken by analysts including chemist Pascal Chatonnet at Laboratoire Excell in France suggest that there are severalsources of TCA contamination of oak wood – although so far nobody seems to knowwhere it comes from.

However, the claims have been rubbished by French coopers association Tonneliers de France, which described them as ‘inaccurate and insulting’.

Excell, which has developed a commercial procedure fortesting new barrels for infection, will set out the research in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.