TCA question

[Florida Jim]

I opened a magnum of 1997 Jaboulet, La Chapelle, several days ago. As the cork was coming out, I turned the corkscrew incorrectly and partially broke the cork. The immediate smell of TCA was noticeable. When I got it all the way out, I smelled the bottom (the part in contact with the wine) and it smelled strongly of TCA. I certainly anticipated that the wine would be corked.

But both Diane and I tried the wine (she is very sensitive to cork taint) and neither of us could find any sign of TCA. Still, it worried me, as every other time I have had a question about the smell of the cork, the wine has been tainted. So I put a stopper in the bottle (not made of cork) and put it back on the shelf (room temp.).

The following evening (24 hours later) still no sign of cork taint. The wine tastes as it always has (I have had this wine many times since release) and it shows young but not muted or disjointed in any fashion.

The next evening (48 hours since opening) we had another glass and still no taint. Rather the wine has smoothed out and is showing less young (but still not anywhere near peak) than it did last night.

This is a unique experience for me, as I can always tell TCA by smelling the freshly pulled cork. And any time I have had a question but have been unable to definitely state that a wine was corked, leaving it for a day brings the taint to the fore.

Anybody else ever run into an occasion where the cork smelled strongly of taint but the wine was perfectly sound?

Best, Jim

[George Taber]

I opened a magnum of 1997 Jaboulet, La Chapelle, several days ago. As the cork was coming out, I turned the corkscrew incorrectly and partially broke the cork. The immediate smell of TCA was noticeable. When I got it all the way out, I smelled the bottom (the part in contact with the wine) and it smelled strongly of TCA. I certainly anticipated that the wine would be corked.

But both Diane and I tried the wine (she is very sensitive to cork taint) and neither of us could find any sign of TCA. Still, it worried me, as every other time I have had a question about the smell of the cork, the wine has been tainted. So I put a stopper in the bottle (not made of cork) and put it back on the shelf (room temp.).

The following evening (24 hours later) still no sign of cork taint. The wine tastes as it always has (I have had this wine many times since release) and it shows young but not muted or disjointed in any fashion.

The next evening (48 hours since opening) we had another glass and still no taint. Rather the wine has smoothed out and is showing less young (but still not anywhere near peak) than it did last night.

This is a unique experience for me, as I can always tell TCA by smelling the freshly pulled cork. And any time I have had a question but have been unable to definitely state that a wine was corked, leaving it for a day brings the taint to the fore.

Anybody else ever run into an occasion where the cork smelled strongly of taint but the wine was perfectly sound?

Best, Jim

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[George Taber]

I am writing a book on the cork taint problem and have been deep in the subject for six months. But that's a new one to me. If you find an answer, I'd love to talk with you off line about it. Might be interesting for my book..

[Florida Jim]

I am writing a book on the cork taint problem and have been deep in the subject for six months. But that's a new one to me. If you find an answer, I'd love to talk with you off line about it. Might be interesting for my book..

←

George,

I'm getting a number of responses on other internet wine sites (WCWN, Wine Therapy, WLDG, eBob, etc.); you may wish to tune in and peruse those - some very interesting.

If you do not have URL's PM me and I will give them to you.

Best, Jim

[Fengyi]

Anybody else ever run into an occasion where the cork smelled strongly of taint but the wine was perfectly sound?

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I've run into this situation on a few German rieslings before, particularly older ones. The cork on some bottles (from the 80s mainly) really reeked of TCA (and I don't normally ever smell the cork specifically so they must have been pretty pongey) when opened...leading to that 'uh-oh' sinking feeling in the pit of one's stomach. However, on tasting, they didn't have any cork taint (and I am pretty TCA sensitive) or scalping. I haven't noticed this so much on any reds that I can remember...

I agree that it seems very peculiar.....

[OrlandoMan]

Jim,

I've had that experience as well, and was surprised as you were. Maybe it has to do with how long the cork is making contact, or how much of the cork is tainted, and, assuming the wine was lying down, how much of the tainted cork is making contact.

[PurpleLips]

The way TCA was explained to me, it is a two stage process to infect wine. First there is a chemical process that takes place in the cork and secondly, the products of that interact chemically with the wine itself. That said, serving in restaurants, some sommeliers/servers will wave the cork discreetly under their noses to check for a whiff of cork taint out of habit, because at one time that was how it was done. But sometimes a wine reveals itself to be corked even after the cork smelled clean, and conversely, sometimes the cork just reeks of TCA, yet the wine is clean.

Edited August 14, 2006 by PurpleLips (log)