Opus One suing barrel supplier over TCA contamination

[RichardFlack]

Speculation indeed as to the circumstances.

But it would be fascinating to see how the would “prove” it was the barrels. I assume it’s a ‘balance of probabilities, test. However there are a lot of other potential factors to be eliminated and I would doubt that they set up their process with the necessary controlled experiments in mind for something like this.

I predict the lawyers will win.

[Mark_Christenson]

I’ve found new barrels have a higher risk of TCA than used barrels. This is not terribly uncommon.

To me, Opus is gonna win. There were 150 barrels delivered by the cooper and 10 of them had TCA? Good luck with the cooper convincing anyone that it happened elsewhere or at the winery or it would have affected other coopers as well. TCA inside the barrel would not be affected by being in a shipping container, most likely.

The killer for the cooper is their “guarantee.” They made the guarantee and that will be the part that sinks them.

My issue with all this is that it is Opus we are talking about and the cooperage is a smaller one. I’ve never heard of their barrels being used in Napa Cab before. Opus would not have DARED to this to Taransaud or Sylvain because they would lose access at all their global properties. But for a small cooper they can leverage them.

Let’s be frank… Opus makes 30,000+ cases. That means 1200 barrels. Of those, 10 were defective. That would be like having one bad barrel in a winery of 120 barrels in a 3000 case winery. Or like me having 6 bad gallons out of my 12 barrels. I bleed off 10x that down the drain every year for my saignee, alone.

So one small cooper has TCA and it affects a tiny portion of your wine and you have 70% margins? Drop the cooper and move on. But to use a blunt instrument like a lawsuit and publicity to crush them seems like bullying to me. Given their wine has immense profit margins few wineries can dream of, they can afford to be more gracious that this.

This is like someone who owns a mansion suing a plumber for leaving a dirt smudge on their marble floor that required an employee 15 minutes of work to clean up.

Thanks for the perspective Roy. Really enjoyed reading that.

Yes, me, too!

[Roy_Piper]

I will add one more thing… major kudos to the cellar worker who discovered this. If the TCA is extreme and those barrels got blended into other lots before being caught, it could have ruined 100 barrels or more instead of ten. That cellar worker possibly saved Opus $4 million. I hope they give that person a bonus of $40,000. That would be just 1% of the money he saved that can now go to the bottom line of Mouton and Constellation. Nah, on reflection, I am sure it will just go to the bottom line. Or to the lawyers on staff now suing the poor cooper.

[larry_schaffer]

Roy,

Do you really feel there is a higher % of TCA in new barrels than used ones? I have never experienced it in new ones, and at another winery I worked at, we would bring in at least 1,000 new ones a year, from a variety of different coopers. The only TCA infected barrels we experienced came from barrels that we had for at least ten years. And that said, I used plenty of older barrels myself - I’ve never used a new barrel for any of my wines - and have never experienced TCA in any of mine at all.

As I stated above, my guess is that Opus filed because the cooper decided that they did not have to pay for the potential retail value of the wines but rather for the ‘production cost’ of the wines.

One interesting parallel - those cork companies that are ‘guranteeing’ their corks for no TCA - is it at suggested retail value or? If there was a very large claim, my guess is that some companies might balk at this. And just one more thing - I know a winery that is using one of these ‘guaranteed no TCA corks’ and they have had issues, and the cork company offered them a credit towards future purchase - NOT a refund. And the winery has no desire to get more of these so . . .

Cheers.

[Alan_Rath]

I will add one more thing… major kudos to the cellar worker who discovered this. If the TCA is extreme and those barrels got blended into other lots before being caught, it could have ruined 100 barrels or more instead of ten. That cellar worker possibly saved Opus $4 million. I hope they give that person a bonus of $40,000. That would be just 1% of the money he saved that can now go to the bottom line of Mouton and Constellation. Nah, on reflection, I am sure it will just go to the bottom line. Or to the lawyers on staff now suing the poor cooper.

Surely a company like this, dealing with barrels of wine of this value, tests every barrel before blending? I’ll bet they have their own lab and equipment (I know someone on this board who probably knows the answer).

[larry_schaffer]

TCA is not something you normally ‘test’ for in a wine in barrel. Incidents of TCA in barrel are very very rare - or at least they have been in places where I have worked and from what I’ve been told by others.

And many wineries will not ‘test’ for anything ‘abnormal’ before blending - you might look at ABV, pH, and TA but usually not much else. And if there is ‘something else’, it’s usually any kind of microbiological stuff or brett.

Would love to hear from other winemakers, but again, not something I’ve heard of others doing.

Cheers!

[Roy_Piper]

No way Opus or anyone else tests every barrel. I doubt the winemaker even tastes every barrel. Since most of the time lots are fermented separately, when lots are racked into tank, the whole tank is tested and tasted. That’s why the cellar worker should get some love from them. The next chance they would have had to discover it is when those barrels and others lots were put in tank and it is possible they would have blended a few lots right off the bat in the first racking. A couple of bad barrels might have went into one tank and a couple more into another, etc.

[Nathan_Smyth]

So one small cooper has TCA and it affects a tiny portion of your wine and you have 70% margins? Drop the cooper and move on. But to use a blunt instrument like a lawsuit and publicity to crush them seems like bullying to me. Given their wine has immense profit margins few wineries can dream of, they can afford to be more gracious that this.

This is like someone who owns a mansion suing a plumber for leaving a dirt smudge on their marble floor that required an employee 15 minutes of work to clean up.

That cellar worker possibly saved Opus $4 million…Nah, on reflection, I am sure it will just go to the bottom line. Or to the lawyers on staff now suing the poor cooper.

1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths, study finds
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1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths, study finds

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The study of 261 senior professionals in the United States found that 21 per cent had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits. The rate of psychopathy in the general population is about one in a hundred…"

[GregT]

I don’t know that it’s bullying. The idea might be to get an early win and then leverage that to get at the bigger coopers. It’s pretty much past time this has become an issue - the cork and barrel people either have to disclaim responsibility for their products or stand behind them. The cellar worker should definitely get some recognition and whether the CEO is a psychopath or not, it’s in his interest to retain someone who can contribute to the bottom line.

Does anyone know how TCA develops in wood? In other words, a barrel can be in a room near other barrels and corks that have TCA but that lone barrel won’t “get” the TCA. However, if there is TCA found on the outside of a stave, what is the likelihood that it permeates that stave and appears both on the outside and the inside?

Also, if the wine is compromised, it’s had contact with every stave within the barrel. But I presume that does not mean that you would find TCA in every stave. So if one were to test the barrel, they should be able to identify the specific source within each barrel, or is that not correct?

[GregP]

TCA is not something you normally ‘test’ for in a wine in barrel. Incidents of TCA in barrel are very very rare - or at least they have been in places where I have worked and from what I’ve been told by others.

And many wineries will not ‘test’ for anything ‘abnormal’ before blending - you might look at ABV, pH, and TA but usually not much else. And if there is ‘something else’, it’s usually any kind of microbiological stuff or brett.

Would love to hear from other winemakers, but again, not something I’ve heard of others doing.

Cheers!

I have yet to come across a barrel with TCA. When this report came out earlier this week I read it and shrugged it off. How does Opus prove their point? Cooper will loose the business with Opus in any case, seems like it, but then they can track the rest of same shipment/batch they sold to other wineries and present it as “only happened at Opus” argument/point. Provided rest of that same batch is clear of TCA, of course.

To the point of barrel transport and such posted above. I personally pick up barrels from 2 warehouses. One is nothing but barrels, pretty much who’s who of Pinot world (both coopers and wineries). Another one, and something I have not seen before, stores both barrels and cased goods side by side, the place is enormous in size by any measure. And now reading through this lawsuit and thread above I am curious to find out what type of warehouse barrels in question came from, barrels only or mixed. Not sure what the mechanism of TCA transfer from cased goods to barrels could be, but interesting nonetheless.

[Gordon_Fitz]

A lot of wineries chasing oak barrels ! Not only may the affected cooperage opt not to do future business with Opus One, same might be said of his buddies! Constellation, that owns Mondavi has a big force, but is this really a good peeing contest for them to get into?

How might Opus taste made from all American oak?

[Anton_D]

How might Opus taste made from all American oak?

Now that’s something to consider!

[Peter_Shurman]

poor Opus …

[Alan_Rath]

No way Opus or anyone else tests every barrel. I doubt the winemaker even tastes every barrel. Since most of the time lots are fermented separately, when lots are racked into tank, the whole tank is tested and tasted. That’s why the cellar worker should get some love from them. The next chance they would have had to discover it is when those barrels and others lots were put in tank and it is possible they would have blended a few lots right off the bat in the first racking. A couple of bad barrels might have went into one tank and a couple more into another, etc.

If I ran Opus, or any high end Napa producer, I’d be testing every barrel for TCA, brett, microbial, etc. - anything bad that could ruin my ultimately blended wine. A single barrel is worth on the order of $50k, not much excuse for not spending a few hundred to test.

[larry_schaffer]

No way Opus or anyone else tests every barrel. I doubt the winemaker even tastes every barrel. Since most of the time lots are fermented separately, when lots are racked into tank, the whole tank is tested and tasted. That’s why the cellar worker should get some love from them. The next chance they would have had to discover it is when those barrels and others lots were put in tank and it is possible they would have blended a few lots right off the bat in the first racking. A couple of bad barrels might have went into one tank and a couple more into another, etc.

If I ran Opus, or any high end Napa producer, I’d be testing every barrel for TCA, brett, microbial, etc. - anything bad that could ruin my ultimately blended wine. A single barrel is worth on the order of $50k, not much excuse for not spending a few hundred to test.

Alan,

Understand that the presence of TCA in barrels is so infrequent that the majority of wineries would never ever test for it - it’s not something you really would ever expect to see in a barrel. Period.

Brett? Different story . . .

Cheers!

[Alan_Rath]

Test for Brett is the same as test for TCA, no? 2 birds, one stone.

[larry_schaffer]

Test for Brett is the same as test for TCA, no? 2 birds, one stone.

Usually not the same test. And wineries would not usually spend the money to do an extra test if they have no reason to believe this will occur - it happens that seldomly.

Hoping other winemakers pipe in here - Adam Lee? Carole Meredit? John Cabot? Brian Loring?

Cheers.