$12 Million Study Discovers Unusual Flavor in Wine
From the May 22, 2009 issue of The Week:
(It was a good week for) nuance, after a six-year, $12 million scientific study identified the flavors in New Zealand’s signature Sauvignon Blanc as a combination of passion fruit, asparagus, and cat’s pee. “If you had a whole lot of cat’s pee it obviously wouldn’t be great,” said researcher Sue Blackmore. “It’s amazing what a little can do.”
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You have questions. 
I…I have no words.
Sue, that makes two of us!
oooook …interesting
They could have done a much simpler study, and spent at least $11,999,975 less money to figure out that too much cat’s pee is bad in wine is a bad thing; however, with the discovery that a little bit of cat’s pee is actually a Good Thing, the sizer and expense of this study is MUCH easier to justify!
Chris, I’m with you! Lol..
oooook …interesting
I wonder who got the short straw in figuring out what cat pee tastes like?
ohlookachicken…*snerk* and…eeew.
Well, that explains it!
One would think that cat’s pee in anything would make it nasty!
EEEEWWWWWWW !!!
Think of all the Cats who are gainfully employed? MOL!
Ugh! I think I’ll stick to Shiraz.
note to one’s self: another reason to stick to beer.
Now as a wine Producer I’d like to give some explanation about the cat’s pee…
First of all Wine descriptions are always about associating Flavours with known flavours of other things…
Now it is of course the winemaker’s issue to pick the grapes at the right “aromatical” time…
that means…
If you pick Sauvignon Blanc too early then you have green flavours like Green Pepper, Capsicum, Grass, Asparagus, Stinging Nettle
As Grapes ripen, flavours turn to Grapefruit, Elderberry, Cassis, Gooseberry, and a flavour that reminds of Cat’s pee…
And if you wait longer you’ll end up with Passionfruit, Mango, Peach, Apricot, ripe tropical flavors.
I tasted a NZ Sauvignon Blanc at the London Wine Fair “Decanter Stand”… that had too much flavours reminding of cat’s pee! I mean how can they award that wine???
We pick our grapes at “Flavour ripeness levels” outside of that cat’s pee area… 2009 we went for those tropical flavours…
… So buy a NZ Sauvignon Blanc of a source, where you know the Winemaker picked the grapes at the right time ;)
I would like the $11.9 million left over from Chris’ modified study to get RID of cat pee – smell or flavor!!! You’d think if we can figure out what it is that gives the “cat pee flavor”, maybe there’s hope in getting rid of it!!!!