Canines coming to Napa Valley and surrounding wine country to combat cork taint

[Auggie]

North Coast wineries and coopers may soon have a new line of defense against dreaded cork taint: former drug sniffing dogs from Chile.

The musty bane of the industry, cork taint spoils wines from the highest prices to the lowest by way of chemical compounds that leave a “corked” wine with aromas of damp newspaper, wet dog, moldy basement, and so on. Generally speaking, the culprit compounds 2,4,6- trichloroanisol and 2,4,6-tribromoanisal, or TCA and TBA, are the unpleasant fallout when chlorine mingles with fungi or mold.

While corks are often the vehicle for passing TCA or TBA into otherwise healthy wines, the compounds can make their way into many other steps of the winemaking process. They’re also indiscriminate, a threat to wines from any producer at any price.

One recent case saw TCA claim nearly 600 gallons of pricey Cabernet Sauvignon from Opus One, which blamed 10 contaminated barrels from a cooperage dealing in French oak. In turn, the winery is now seeking upwards of $470,000 from its barrel supplier.

MORE: https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/canines-coming-to-napa-and-surrounding-wine-country-to-combat/article_70f212af-1e9c-5538-a6d1-e11a0091f6b3.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-2

Dogs are awesome

[KT2000]

1. I wonder if the source

could be organochlorine herbicides used on the cork and wood.