I recently hosted a Supertuscan tasting that was to be memorable given the lineup of wines, which included vintages of Guado al Tasso, Solaia, Sassicaia and Masseto. It surely was memorable, but for all the wrong reasons: The bottle of 2001 Masseto was, argh, corked. Wretched TCA! It almost drove me over the edge, well, almost. Corked Masseto!? 2001!? That hurts. So, being the scientist-minded person that I am, I decided to explore this further and see how I could fix this problem (aside from switching over to screwcaps).

TCA, short for 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, is a compound that produces a moldy, musty smell and is the result of a chemical reaction between phenolic compounds, present in both oak wood (Q. suber) and wines, and mold or chlorine, and which can be detected at extremely low concentrations, in the ng/L, or parts per trillion (ppt), range. The smell is what is referred to as “corked,” which is unmistakably detectable in affected wines and which mutes aromas.

I had once read that TCA can be “removed” using butterfat. I never had the opportunity to try it, but this Masseto experience gave me a serious incentive to experiment and confirm the solution.

And so on I go about experimenting. This should be interesting. I’ll report back on my findings.

Stay tuned!

Daniel