Corked Whisky?

[arkle]

Does anyone know if you can get corked whisky as you can with wine?

[peergynt323]

I'm also curious. I can see the stuff on the cork, but does it affect whisky?

[Lawrence]

Does anyone know if you can get corked whisky as you can with wine?

Yes you can but it appears to be less frequent in whisky. I'm guessing but perhaps maybe because whisky is stored upright and not its side like wine.

[Admiral]

Yes, you can certainly get corked whiskies. I have an excellent example of it with me here....a bottle of Highland Park 12yo that is soooo corked, it's disgusting.

Cork taint is actually a chemical that is usually the product of a fungus that can be present either in the cork or even in the cask wood.

I have posted on this topic in the past. Look up "TCA" in the archives and you'll find some informative stuff.

Interestingly, its prevalence in whisky has nothing to do with whether the bottle is kept upright or not.

Cheers,
ADmiral

[Deactivated Member]

There has been a lot of discussion of this here previously. Admiral's suggestion to search on "TCA" is definitely worthwhile; if you have the patience to weed through more stuff, a search on "corked" will turn up more info. His point that this particular taint is distinct from spoilage due to contact with a healthy cork is worth noting.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

There are 2 basic types of issues with corked wine. One is that there is bacteria on the cork that ruins the wine and the other where there is too much air getting through which makes it stale and turns to vinegar. Cork by it's nature allows the wine to breath which is part of the aging process for some wines but when there is too much breathing so to speak it is a bad thing and the wine goes bad.

This also applies to whiskey but there has not been much documented about it.

I personally think the only issue you will have with a corked bottle of whiskey is when too much air gets in that it will make the whiskey bit stale. However the issue of bacteria is not lightly to happen becuse of the high abv which will kill off any bacteria in the first place.

Why do you think they use whiskey on wounds in Westerns

Further whiskey will take years and year to go stale and still can be drunk where wine is totally foul.

[killerwhale]

I have a bottle of Gordons Highlander (blend) and it looks like there is a little fungus on the stopper inside and there is a residue around the neck of the bottle inside.
I'm not 100% sure what it is though I don't know if I would want to drink it....
I'll ask the product consultant at my local store and see what she thinks it is. None of my other opened whiskies have this residue so I better check before I consume

[Deactivated Member]

There isn't any life-form I know of that can live in a 40% alcohol solution, so I wouldn't worry much about the fungus, or whatever it is. On the other hand, I suppose it's possible that something growing on the cork could produce something toxic, or worse, bad-tasting, that you wouldn't want in your whisky.

[killerwhale]

Thanks Mr.T. I scraped a bit off and I think it's not a fungus.... perhaps part of the cork that has just been 'bleached' by the alcohol?
It's over the dark part of the cork and exposed to the fumes. My other corks seem fine and not 'bleached' if I can use that word to describe it, so this is why, along with the white residue around the inside of the bottle where this cork touches the glass, made me a tad concerned. If that's an ugly run-on sentence, so be it.... I never liked grammer.