ThomasNet Industrial News Room, NY
03-30-07
This Wine Tastes Like Ladybug Pee
If you have a bad bottle of wine, it might be because there are ladybugs in it.
ScienceDaily reports that a growing number of winemakers say that their wines
have an abnormal aroma and flavor known as “ladybug taint” because it
resembles the polka-dotted insect’s characteristic foul-smelling odor.
Winemakers report that there are more ladybugs in vineyards and on the grapes
during harvest. Experts believe that the bugs can be inadvertently processed and
fermented with grapes and taint the aroma and flavor of wine.
Now chemists at Iowa State University, led by university agricultural
engineer Jacek Koziel, Ph.D., say they have identified several compounds that
are responsible for the ladybug’s noxious odor, according to ScienceDaily. The
finding could lead to new strategies to detect and eliminate the offensive
compounds, thus leading to better tasting wine.