George M. Taber, the famous author of the book, Judgment of Paris, spoke at a lecture organized by Deluca Liquor & Wine. You can read more about the Judgment of Paris and the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 in the post entitled “George M. Taber Lecture: Judgment of Paris.”

George Taber’s new book, To Cork or Not To Cork, was the focus of this lecture. This book is about the problems associated with the use of cork. It also presents the various wine closure methods that can serve as an alternative to wine cork. The pros and cons associated with these methods are also discussed.

I have not read this book yet, so I will not discuss it here. Let me just say that there really is no perfect cork, as George so unequivocally stated; otherwise, there would be no such thing as “cork taint” in today’s wine.

Australian Wine and Cork Taint[/glossary]

This is my two cents on why Australian wines are the world’s most corked (i.e. cork tainted) wines.

In my opinion, it is not the long journey from Portugal to Australia since South American wines do not suffer from this issue. I think the problem originates from the Australian Customs’ practice of fumigating all incoming containers that contain wood or wood-based products. Perhaps, the corked wines problem in Australia is related to the fumigation process.

Did I hit the nail on the head with my theory? Until next time! Cheers!