From a recent study published in Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA):
It is interesting that TCA actually mutes our sense of smell, which also accounts for the phenomenon of "fruit scalping" when low levels of TCA are present.
Mark Lipton
I feel like we wine drinkers already knew this. I mean it is a well-known property of cork taint that not only do you have the wet cardboard flavor, but the other flavors that _should_ be there aren't.
So the logical conclusion is that either TCA somehow magically destroys other flavors, or it suppreses our ability to taste them.
Note this well-known band-aid (hah) for cork taint:
I've tried it and I swear it helps. Brought an undrinkable Savenierres up to drinkable, if not great.
But I haven't seen any blind tests.
In any case, when you do this two things happen: the must carboard abates some, and other flavors come back some.
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