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Posted to alt.food.wine
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How to determine your TCA sensitivity threshhold
On 11 Nov 2006 04:34:54 GMT, (Hunt) wrote:
>As far as one's sensitivity to TCA goes, it is an interesting
>situation/problem. Both my wife, and I, are very sensitive to it. We usually
>agree 100% on its existance. Maybe because of a great olfactoray ability, I
>can often pick it up, when a waiter passes by with wines b-t-g in a restaurant
>filled with other odors. However, there are times, that I am not 100% sure and
>ask for her validation. If I have detected it, she has always confirmed it.
>
It has become second nature to me, when I first remove the cork from a
bottle of wine, to smell the bottle. My rule of thumb is that, if I
think I detect TCA, the bottle is probably corked. I will smell it
several times over the next few seconds and often find that the smell
has blown off to the point that I can no longer smell it. This may be
at least partially due to some desensitization of my sense of smell.
The next step is to pour some into a glass, swirl it around, and smell
it again. If there is still uncertainty, I will take a sip and, if
still in doubt, swallow a small amount. A corked wine will almost
always be obvious on the finish.
>On the palete, I usually find a higher concentration of acid, and very muted
>fruit. This is most often used as the confirmation to the nasal perceptions.
>This is less than perfect, if I do not have some reference for the particular
>wine. It also seems better suited for whites, than for reds. As many reds have
>a dusky, musty, earthy quality, I have to really concentrate with some of them
>to make sure that it is not "Rutherford Dust," or similar, that I am
>experiencing.
>
I once opened a bottle of Sauvugnon Blanc, a label and vintage that I
was familiar with. Unlike earlier experiences, this bottle seemed to
have no fruit flavor. I tried and tried, but could never detect TCA,
but there continued to be that lack of fruit. If it had been a wine
that I was not familiar with, I would have concluded that it was just
a lousy wine. I ended up taking the bottle to a respected wine
professional who poured, swirled, sniffed, and tasted. For a while he
was genuinely puzzled. Suddenly he had that aha! moment and pronounced
the bottle corked. I respected his judgment but, hard as I might try,
I could never smell TCA in that bottle.
I don't know that I have any opinion on the relative rates of corked
wine between whites and reds. I agree with Hunt on the difficulties
associated with detecting corked reds. OTOH, whites are always (for me
anyway) opened when they are cold, which presents a different set of
difficulties. These are worsened when the wine is one of the more
aromatic varietals.
>For a purely scientific standpoint, I think that Mark Lipton covered most
>bases.
Agreed.
Vino
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