I'm confused by your comment about chlorine from ACs. What sort of AC system uses tap water? Obviously not forced air, but I've only been in water cooled buildings that use nearby lake or river water, presumably because using treated water would be wasteful. Is this common somewhere?
Very curious - thanks for the insight, esp on the cleaning products!
Hmm I'm not sure about the air conditioning off the top of my head. George Taber has a book called To Cork or Not To Cork, and I know he discusses the different sources of chlorine in there. It's possible that some commercial air conditioning systems have built in humidifiers, but I'm not positive.
Theoretically cork taint is mostly avoidable as long as the wines aren't stored in buildings made from wood or that have wood floors, and as long as there isn't air conditioning. The reason for cork taint is that the chlorine that's used in cleaning products and that comes out of air conditioners (running on chlorinated city water) builds up in wood over time, and then reacts with the mold in cork to form TCA. The other problem is that the vast majority of cork is stored on the ground and is just left to get moldy with zero quality standards, despite what this article would have you believe. Cork taint should be essentially non-existant up until the time of purchase, it's just that the industry has been completely unable to get its act together.