The BBC on TCA

Post by **jdaw1** » 21:22 Mon 16 Sep 2013

The BBC, in an article entitled [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24108094]Corked wine can 'shut down' the nose[/url], wrote:Scientists believe corked wine can taste awful because contaminants dampen the nose's ability to smell.

A chemical called TCA sometimes gets into a cork and leaves the wine smelling like a damp cloth or strips the drink of its flavour.

Researchers at Osaka University, Japan, say the effects may not be down to TCA's own unpleasant odour, but the way it suppresses the sense of smell.

They want to use the findings to develop ways of hiding bad smells.

TCA or "cork taint" can be a wine producer's nightmare. It can leave the wine reeking so badly it is destined for the sink or so bland it becomes a readily forgettable experience with customers unlikely to come back for more.

The team at Osaka University was investigating how TCA functions by analysing how the smell-centres of newts and people responded to the chemical.

djewesbury · Post by **djewesbury** » 21:50 Mon 16 Sep 2013

Newts...?

LGTrotter · Post by **LGTrotter** » 22:20 Mon 16 Sep 2013

djewesbury wrote:Newts...?

'Guppies' as they are termed in the US (at least I was lead to believe this by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse). Salamandrea. Great things newts, difficult to train I would imagine.

djewesbury · Post by **djewesbury** » 22:21 Mon 16 Sep 2013

I know what they are, dearheart. But I didn't know that they ever sent bottles back.

LGTrotter · Post by **LGTrotter** » 22:24 Mon 16 Sep 2013

I thought I covered that with my comment on training. I mean it, they are tough, shed their tails and everything.

djewesbury · Post by **djewesbury** » 22:26 Mon 16 Sep 2013

I would have expected them to slurp up even the vilest old dishwater. Clearly I underestimated them.

I wonder how the researchers in Osaka knew...

Post by **DRT** » 22:28 Mon 16 Sep 2013

I think some here might be doing convincing impressions of newts right now

LGTrotter · Post by **LGTrotter** » 22:29 Mon 16 Sep 2013

One simply has to arch one's back and waggle the tail in a semicircle. The mating ritual I hear.

djewesbury · Post by **djewesbury** » 22:34 Mon 16 Sep 2013

DRT wrote:I think some here might be doing convincing impressions of newts right now

Well exactly. If they're that picky, how do they ever get to that famed state...?

LGTrotter · Post by **LGTrotter** » 22:39 Mon 16 Sep 2013

djewesbury wrote:
DRT wrote:I think some here might be doing convincing impressions of newts right now
Well exactly. If they're that picky, how do they ever get to that famed state...?

Cockburn LBV 2007. Dreadful, tastes of pineapple, forsooth.

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