# Is it just my palate, or what?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-my-palate-or-what/1020336>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** beer, wine\
**Created:** [July 1, 2025, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-my-palate-or-what/1020336 "2025-07-01T05:34:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-my-palate-or-what/1020336/5 "2025-07-01T07:00:29Z")

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> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Are these actual phenomena that people deal with, such that I ought to revere those people and be grateful for their service to the cause of adult-beverage-drinkability, or am I better served by being grateful that my palate cannot discern such experience-ruining characteristics?

Corked wine is indeed an actual thing. However, modern knowledge and production methodologies have made it a lot rarer than it used to be. As I described **[here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/food-and-drink-with-rituals-attached/993826/8)** (in a longer thread about food rituals), I’ve never been served a corked bottle myself, in over thirty years of fine dining.

There’s also some discussion **[here](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-little-taste-of-wine-at-the-start-of-the-bottle-called/1003085).**

And the result of corking is distinctive and (here is where I disagree with the preceding) unmistakably unpleasant. It’s like old wet cardboard. It doesn’t matter how inexperienced your palate is — if you smell a corked wine, you’ll know it.

Edit to add: I know this because, despite never having been presented a corked wine “in the wild,” I have smelled reproductions of the aroma in a couple of different wine-production facilities and informational exhibitions. **[This one](https://www.laciteduvin.com/fr)** is particularly excellent.

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