One of the hottest stories sweeping the California wine industry focuses on "sick cellar syndrome," a subject of dread to all winemakers. Wine Spectator magazine recently revealed that Napa Valley stalwart Beaulieu Vineyard suffers from a systemic taint problem, which could lead to musty, moldy flavors in as many as several hundred thousand cases of their flagship Napa wines.
At issue is the chemical compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, more commonly known as TCA. While it poses no health hazards, TCA can have a huge impact on taste and is the culprit behind most "corky" wines.
At higher concentrations, it smells wet, rotting cardboard. More insidiously, at lower concentrations it can rob wine of its fruit flavors, but not be readily identified.