Originally Posted by
cordelli
Mr. Waterhouse said that the obnoxious, dank flavor of a “corked” wine, which usually renders it unusable even in cooking, can be removed by pouring the wine into a bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap.
“It’s kind of messy, but very effective in just a few minutes,” he said. “The culprit molecule in infected corks, 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, is chemically similar to polyethylene and sticks to the plastic.”
Originally Posted by
Homeboy
Saran wrap reputedly works quite well.
Probably because Saran wrap is made of polyethylene film.
Originally Posted by
MisterNice
Most food grade plastics are really quite inert (and should be). This suggestion seems silly to me.
Just because something's inert doesn't mean a material can't cling to it. All that being inert means is that it
resists chemical reaction. Look at Teflon. Very non-reactive material, but it can be bonded to the inside of your cookware. And, if you get it hot enough, it will break down. Plastics are actually soluble in water. The solubility is just so small that it's not significant. Some people can taste "plasticy" notes in bottled water. Glass is even less soluble.
Inertness (for lack of a better word) is a property of environmental conditions. Even inert gases like xenon can be made to react under extreme conditions.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject of cork taint:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia, Cork Taint
There are few means of reducing the level of TCA in tainted wine that are approved by the TTB (formerly BATF). Some vintners have used Half & Half to remove TCA from wine (the TCA in the wine is sequestered by the butterfat in Half & Half). Other means of removing TCA from tainted wine is to soak polyethylene (a plastic used for applications such as milk containers and plastic food wrap) in the infected wine. The non-polar TCA molecule has a high affinity for the polyethylene molecule, thereby removing the taint from the wine. The surface area of polyethylene needed to reduce the taint to sub-threshold levels is based on the TCA level in the affected wine, temperature, and the alcohol level of the wine. The French company Boffin markets a product called "Dream Taste" which uses a copolymer shaped like a cluster of grapes to remove the TCA taint from commercial wine.