Nathan Smyth wrote:Remember, though, that sensitivity to TCA [like sensitivity to pretty much anything, involving any of the five senses] will have a bell curve of variation throughout the population.
Not likely to be a bell curve, actually. Most likely a Poisson distribution, but it's the same idea. In case the term Poisson distribution doesn't ring any bells, just reread the first 3-400 pp. of Gravity's Rainbow to reacquaint yourself with the term.
Some people will be oblivious to a small amount of TCA, whereas that same dosage could prove undrinkably noxious to others.
Yup. I had a semi-surreal experience while tasting with three winegeek friends in NZ in '01 when we all sampled a Pinot Noir at Ata Rangi in Martiborough: I knew before tasting it that it was corked, but one of my winegeek friends said "Aha! I never knew what a corked wine smelled like before. To me, this just smells lifeless and flat." He knew that he was TCA-insensitive but had never had the experience of a sensitive like me pointing out an example to him for calibration purposes (he's in his 60s and has been drinking wine for decades more than I have).
Over the course of the last two or three years, I've started to suffer from the same problem that Laube does - I've had numerous bottles from the same production runs that all showed very small amounts of [what I call "background"] TCA, leading me to conclude that there's systemic contamination of the wineries in question. And [not surprisingly, but nevertheless still depressingly] I'm even getting this in screw-capped wines.
Hopefully, you won't write scathing criticisms of wineries based on your hypersensitivity, Nathan.
Although it occurs to me that if a vintner mixes in a vat before bottling, then it only takes one bad barrel to ruin an entire production run.
That really depends on just how badly corked that barrel is and how much it's diluted. We all have some baseline threshold for TCA detection, so if the concentration lies below your detection threshold you would never consider it tainted.
I've also found that soap stains on glassware and in decanters can very effectively mimic the taste of TCA. [Although, having said that, I fear that someone like Chris Coad will now tell me that TCA is tasteless. And maybe someone like SFJoe would know the extent to which "soapy" compounds tend to contain chlorine - or elements which behave like chlorine.]
I'm someone like SFJoe. No natural soap contains any chlorine, nor does any synthetic detergent that I'm aware of. I can't say that I've ever had that sensation, either, but it's certainly possible for two different molecules to share similar smells. What could happen is that soap could sequester TCA or a TCA-like contaminants from wine or water in micelles. If that doesn't get washed out, it could lead to TCA-containing deposits on the glass.
And I think that decanters are a particularly problematic culprit because, given their bizarre shapes, they tend to be nigh unto impossible to wash and wipe properly, and there are darned few non-sudsy cleaners on the market [anyone know of a source for non-sudsy ammonia?].
Sure, I have gallons of aqueous ammonium hydroxide in my labs. There might be some problems getting your hands on aqueous ammonia because of its possible use in explosive manufacture. As an alternative, just make a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide and rinse your decanters with that, washing them
thoroughly with filtered/distilled water afterward.
Mark Lipton
I'll have to invest in one of those magnetic TCA detectors I've seen advertised before bringing another bottle to a jeebus. Actually, a better strategy is probably the TNT one: just have a case of backups handy for that eventuality. And FYI, I also brought a painfully tight De Montille Taillepieds, so there! 
