WTN: 1982 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande.

The 1982 Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande is Janet's favorite wine. A good friend gave her two bottles from an absolutely pristine wooden case of 12 bottles. Her friend was ITB for a number of years, he said the case had impeccable provenance and I know for sure it was held at 50F/70% for the past four years.

The first bottle was badly corked; the second bottle was way, way over the hill, with no fruit at all, not immediately, not after an hour and then two hours in the glass, not the next day after sitting in the fridge in the bottle.

None of us could detect any TCA in the second bottle, but there was no fruit, indicating the possibility that there was TCA present below our levels of detection.

I'm assuming this case has been kept intact since it left the winery -- certainly all 12 bottles had perfect labels and looked identical.

I'm wondering if it's possible that traces of TCA from the badly corked bottle could have migrated into the second bottle, at least enough TCA to destroy the fruit.

Any thoughts?

Regards, Bob

PS: Just an observation: it's an unsettling experience to go into my wine cellar and see our friend's beautiful wooden box with 10 absolutely perfect looking bottles of what has been in the past a wonderful wine -- great superficial beauty -- but serious concern about the possibility of dead wine inside. B.

Happy New Year Bob, sorry about yours and Janet's experience with the Pinchon, (was this the Baron, or the Comtesse?) I am for sure no expert on TCA but I doubt that the nasties could migrate from one bottle to another the way you proposed. I would guess that your luck was just terrible and you got two bottles from the same case that were both infected. I would at least contact the winery and let them know of the problem. Heck they might even offer to replace both bottles, or not, but you would have tried. I also am not the first to pick out a flawed bottle when the infection is very low, but the lack of fruit is almost a dead give away isn't it? Again my condolences. BTW, have you (could you) check with the friend to see if he has had any trouble of a like nature?

Thanks for the idea, Bob. I edited my post to make it clear it was the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Regards, Bob