Readers Chime In

This email comes from K&L customer Ryan, who added in his two cents about "corked" whisk(e)y:

Saw your post about TCA in whiskey. One of the first dozen bottles I purchased (from (retailer name edited), before they sold my email address to spammers and I started coming to K&L) was a Glengoyne 17. It was the most expensive bottle I'd purchased at that point and I was really looking forward to tasting it. When I got the bottle open, it immediately smelled rank. I poured a glass, hoping that the nose was just challenging. It tasted like a boxer's armpit. I didn't know anything at the time and figured Glengoyne was just a whisky that I did not like. To this day, I call it "Glengroin" with my friends. I haven't actually tried any since, even though I subsequently learned bottles could go bad.

I also had a bottle of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey from (retailer name edited) that tasted good at first, but went completely to shit within three months. I mentioned it to a friend who also had a bottle. He went and checked his and it had also turned simply horrible since he had last tasted it not very long previous.

You're absolutely right about wanting to educate spirits consumers about TCA and whatever other things can go wrong with a whiskey. My conclusion as a novice drinker was that these were simply garbage products from apathetic producers. It only harms the spirits world to pretend this problem doesn't exist.

Thanks for the message Ryan! I'm sure other readers have had similar experiences. It's not always simply the whisk(e)y.

-David Driscoll