. Vite Vinifera De Vino's Blog: It Takes Time to Experiment

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

It Takes Time to Experiment


A lot of people have been talking about alternative closures for a bottle of wine. The reason, of course, is that the traditional closure the cork isn't perfect. Cork, like wine itself, is an agricultural product, and like wine, cork can have flaws. When cork fails, the results can be disastrous and costly. Elio Altare, for example, had to pour away the entire production of his 1997 Barolos because of failed corkage. That cost Mr. Altare and the cork producer hundreds of thousands of dollars, and trust me, the loss of a year's worth of loving effort cost more than a few tears too.

For a while we heard a lot about plastic corks. In a strange echo across the decades, we were told "there is a great future in plastics." And like the hesitant Ben in 1967 classic film "The
Graduate," we weren't sure about it. Right now, the screw top is in the spotlight. It's gotten praise from several winemakers in both the new and the old world, and from what seems like the entire country of Australia, where the screw top is being exalted as the cure that solves all the problems. Like the cover girl du jour, the screw top has been on the front of several wine magazines recently, and a blitz of marketing has even lead to a debate about the proper way to open a screw top bottle in fine restaurants.

Whether the screw top really is a panacea is not an issue to be decided soon. The traditional cork has been used for centuries and we know there are pros and cons of using it. We know it can be good for wine, controlling that subtle refinement that wine undergoes in the bottle, and we know it can be destructive. Experimentation with other forms of sealers has just begun and with only a decade or so of experience, we don't know much about how wine will change and develop over time with anything but a cork.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the screw top. I do have some wine with plastic corks, mostly whites and reds that don't need any cellaring. I don't want to jump into the argument here (although I do find the amount of press, and the amount of positive press in particular, a bit suspicious) but I would like people to keep in mind is that; no one can make any conclusive judgment, against or in favor, of any new wine closures at this time. If it turns out that the screw top is, in fact, like The Wolf from the 1994 classic "Pulp Fiction" and "solves the problems," I will be happy to admit it. But, of course, by the time we know for sure, I might not be alive!

Buona Bevuta a Tutti!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

If you know that there are problems with corks, and you don't seem to have any specific problem with screw tops, then why do you say that you are not a fan of the screw top?

I could understand, maybe, if you said that you weren't sure of screw tops specifically for wines which were designed to age in the bottle -- which, as you know, is a very, very small percentage of all wines. But for the 99% of wines that will be drunk within a couple of years of being bottled? Why not the screw top?

De Vino said...

We now know that at least 2 % of screw cup gives a nasty sulphate odor to the wine...once again it takes time to experiment.

De Vino said...

I read that too, and it seems that he agrees on the fact that there is a problem, he corrected the journalists making more precise statments, but he also admits on the number and that the wines are tainted. I'm not against screw cup or plastic corks I have a problem when these kind of closures are gloryfied without being tested.
I know what to expect from corks I do not know about the rest yet.
Once again it takes time to experiment.