Parker looks to 2015

I think he missed the most obvious change-he will no longer be the most influential wine critic in the world because scores of followers will find that the low acid fruit bombs he urged them to buy and hold for years have gone over the hill.

This comment has been made several times in this forum, i.e. someone remarking on being "fortunate" because of his relative insensitivity to TCA. To me this misses the point. I don't know where I stand on a scale of olfactory sensitivity to the odor of TCA. I suspect that I am more sensitive than the average person but I know others who are more sensitive than I am. But the worst thing about TCA is that, as bad as the smell is, its worst effect is that it destroys the fruit flavors in wine. On several occasions, I have opened a bottle, sniffed it, and detected no TCA. But as I start to consume the bottle, I begin to realize that there is simply nothing there. No fruit, a "flat" feeling on my tongue, and a bad aftertaste (if I get that far), to mention just a few unpleasant sensory perceptions. At that point I will generally recork the bottle and take it to one of my more sensitive friends, who will invariably pronounce it corked. They can smell the TCA but I can't no matter how hard I try.

I agree that TCA can get into wine by a variety of routes but, with a few (but significant) exceptions, e.g. the BV problems, I believe most of it comes from individual corks. I freely admit that I am unable to cite any empirical evidence to back up this assertion.

Vino

Richard, I am a professional wine writer tasting some 3000 to 4000 wines a year. I know what I am speaking about when I say that 5 to

Sorry, but your point is just "head in the sand".

M.

Anders, cork taint is not reduced to TCA odour. For me it is absolutely obvious that, when I open a back-up bottle of the same wine the cork *must* have been the reason. This is supported by the fact that practically no bottle variation whatsoever has ever been reported with wines under screw or crown caps.

M.

Completely disagree.

When did you last have 1982 Pichon Comtesse, one of Parker's first

M.

As to my knowledge, there never has been any TCA problem under stelvin.

Since you insist on your "winery-affected-by-TCA" argument: With the numbers of wines tasted in my life approaching six figures, I have yet to come around a batch of wines affected by winery-imparted TCA.

What you don't seem to get is that winery infection by TCA is infinitesimally rarer than TCA infection (and random oxidation, and and, and ...) by corks.

M.

But with obvious taint rates of 5 to 10 percent, and less obvious taint rates of 20 to 30 percent, the performance is pretty bad.

I prefer a solution with only 30+ years of performance and zero taint rate.

M.

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OK. I agree that 95% of all wines are bought and drank withing days. But this group is not likely in that venue.

Therefore I would contend that the first growths of France, Napa, Italy, Spain will be the VERY last to make these changes to Screw caps.

Additionally, just because TCA problems have been on the rise it really does not mean it has to come from the corks. Someone in this thread indicated that it is rare for the BV issues to exist. I woud contend that we actually don't know how rare that really is. You are willing to accept that it is the cork primarily. I am not there yet.

Someone said that the cork producers have provided no technology to reduce / eliminate TCA. Thay may be true. But growers rarely would come up with advancements. If this was the problem that is cited here that would be a great business to go into. We could all get rich!!!!

I few years ago we had an issue with infestation reports in my food product that was in the retail stores. We had the consumers send back the packages and we called experts in. The type of Weevil was known only to two types of foods. Blackeye Peas and in select cases Flour products. We removed Blackeyes immediately from the product and replaced with another acceptable bean. Then we kepted getting reports of infestation that were in packages after that date. So we sent those back...did a thorough check of our facility and found not problems. Checked our ingredients and found no problems. We raised the alert status to bring in more experts who suggested varying methods inside the plant that we could do better but still found not problems.

In the end we concluded we will have 250 complaints per year on average in good years and bad years. We sell about 2 million packages of our products and we are still concerned about the 250 complaints of infestation even though they could have occured in the consumers home kitchen or retail grocery store in terms of cross contamination.

Removing Blackeyes did not solve the problem and I am not sure that most of all TCA issues are not like the BV issue.

BV might have simply been one of the few willing to speak out and tell the truth.

Sorry, I have to agree to disagree until proof, scientific will back up the assertions here in the group. Also, if you are correct why haven't the majority of wineries already made the change. Is it possible they know then they have no one to blame if TCA remains?

or

M.

Up until now this discussion has been "screw caps" vs. corks. How about the 3rd option - synthetic "corks"? I realize that synthetic corks are mostly used on drink now or short term wines, but I wonder if they would even work for longer term storage? Bottles could be stored upright just like screw caps. Has any research been done on synthetic corks.

Just curious, Dick R.

Dick, if you taste a few thousand wines a year with a combined obvious and hidden taint rate of 30 percent *confirmed* *by*

M.

Sand can be quite tasty :-)

Here we go again.

Sorry, can't agree. More and more wineries are coming forth and telling us that their TCA problems are winery related, not cork related. BV, Chalone, Hanzell, Gallo, Chateau Montelena have all reported wine contamination from TCA present in the winery. And these are only the ones that have taken the time and expense of bringing in an independent lab to test and released the results to the public.

In some cases the wine still gets to market and not every bottle shows taint. In some reports, multiple bottles of the same wine were sent to the labs with some testing positive for TCA contamination and some not. There are just too many variables in wine production to say that all bottle variation is due to the cork.

There is also TCB contamination which is has the same sensory properties as TCA but, from the reports I've seen, has never been detected in corks.

Making a statement that eliminating corks will eliminate bottle variation and TCA contaminated wine is just too simplistic for me. IMHO, it is a much more complex issue than that.

To the other poster that asked why the cork industry hasn't done anything about the problem, simply put, they have. They recognized very early on that a lot of their problems were due to the use of chlorine in their cork processing procedures. AFAIK, they have all stopped.

After saying all that, I applaud the use of screw caps for many wines and wouldn't hesitate to buy wines that packaged this way, especially fresh fruity whites. I'm just not ready to bet my whole cellar on them yet.

Andy

That is what I am trying to state also.

Not all the TCA issues are cork related.

dick

I never seem to drink a bottle with out company. If I am serving wine and my guests were sensitive to TCA and I was not, I think they would think that I had poor tastes in wine. Maybe I should come over and pre-taste your wines before you serve guests.

October issue of Food & Wine magazine which they subtitle 'The Wine Issue" Over all I usually junk this magazine which is sent to me free but Parker does seem to have a regular column I think. It is certainly not in any depth.

A very accurate corparate view of life in the US.

BV did not speak out until the Wine Spectator performed a second open tasting and proved they had a problem. I think they might have been surprized. Several other Napa wineries have had major quanities of wines tainted by things other than TCA in recent years. But this begs the issue. If you can get rid of 15% of the known TCA taint, why not do it immediately.