Even as I post this I’m shaking my head in disbelief. I haven’t heard as outrageous a claim for a wine gadget since the Clef du Vin was released last Christmas. But there’s someone in the UK who has apparently created a device that can eliminate the “corked” flavor from TCA spoiled wines and restore them to their former “un-corked” state.
I know. It sounds preposterous. But many bets have been lost taking odds against modern chemistry, especially when it is reported by generally reputable news sources like the Telegraph in the U.K.
Short story: After 20 years of messing about in a lab with wine, biochemist Gerard Michel, created an ionized coplymer that literally sucks out the molecules of TCA – 2,4,6-trichloroanisole that are responsible for contaminated or “corked” wines. Apparently you decant the wine, dip this little plastic thingy into the wine for anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour and then, presto! Your wine is back to its normal self.
A taste test conducted by the Telegraph with some “wine experts” in the UK yielded some fairly strong praise. Not a perfect performance by the device across all wines, but enough of a difference apparently to make people sit up in amazement, and to make several of the wines imminently drinkable again.
