Covert wrote:Speaking of corks, rather than comparisons, I have seen it written and heard it said that it takes a pretentious person to sniff a cork, since it doesn't mean anything to do so. My wife and I have been approving wine bottles with nothing other than their corks now for some time, now. From my experience, it is most reliable; although I will not be astonished if a bottle in the future passes the cork test but turns out to have a flaw.
Covert, this practice may put you at risk of making the opposite error of rejecting a sound bottle with a TCA-tainted cork. How can that happen, you say? It's pretty rare, but TCA may be present on portions of the cork that have not come into contact with the wine, and if the wine is young enough, the molecules may not have diffused into the wine. Of course, if the TCA contaminates the neck of the bottle, the first pours may be contaminated as well. But there have been occasions were a smelly cork was followed by a sound wine.
In addition, mild TCA taint is amplified by exposure to air, so at least for me, a swirl, sniff, and sip are more likely to reveal the presence of taint. Perhaps you are just more sensitive than me, or lucky enough not to have a bottle that initially just seemed a little closed blossom with corkiness over the next 15 minutes.
So by all means sniff away, I wont think you pretentious. But confirm your impressions with a swirl, sniff, and sip of the wine. After all, your goal is do drink the wine, not eat the cork.