Steve Slatcher > wrote:

> Cannot also barrels, or staves in barrels, be contaminated?

TCA spreads quite freely, so if staves are contaminated, the cask
will be immediately. Wood preservatives containing chlorine used
on the roof construction have been found guilty in contaminating a
whole winery. Another case here in Austria: contaminated wooden
palletes have contaminated (although only slightly) not only ony
vintage of a given winery, but also other batches of wines since
this winery operated bottlings for others.

I once even had deep-fried lamb chops that were completey corked.
The guilty was found rapidly: The slice of lemon (commonly served
with anything deepfried, from Wiener Schnitzel up and down, here
in Austria) had an extremely intense TCA smell. Quite probably it
was contaminated in its wooden delivery case which was
contaminated.

M.